


Beast's Obsession

by AllHailBurnoel



Series: Delvian 'Verse [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Graphic Description, Kirk Whump, Kirk's gonna feel the pain, M/M, Past Rape/Non-con, Protective Bones, Protective Spock, Rape/Non-con - Freeform, Rape/Non-con Elements, Violence, protective Pike
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2018-10-24 18:54:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 139,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10747767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllHailBurnoel/pseuds/AllHailBurnoel
Summary: The Crew of the Enterprise gets three weeks of shore leave, however when Jim and Spock get stuck in official meetings for the first three days of their shore leave things end up going awry for Jim. It seems that no matter how hard he might try Jim Kirk's past will always find a way to catch up to him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story does have some elements that have been mentioned in my story 'And So He Suffered' though it mostly pertains to the abuse Jim suffered at his mother and step-fathers hands so you don't really have to read 'And So He Suffered' to be able to read this and understand whats going on. 
> 
> This story starts off a bit slow but it will most definitely pick up once the ball gets rolling. This story, much like my other story will have some graphic descriptions of violence and rape in later chapters so if that isn't something you want to read than you probably shouldn't read this story.

“So, you all packed and ready ta go Jimbo? You know my Mama’s been dyin’ to get you back home an fatten you up.” Mccoy said with a smirk. “She’s been commin’ me once a week tellin’ me you’re too skinny and you know I agree with her.” 

Jim chuckled at the mental image of Mama McCoy sternly telling Bones to start feeding him more, especially when it was juxtaposed with the image of Bones constantly telling him to eat less, though Bones is always telling him to eat less unhealthy stuff. “I wish Bonesy, but I’m gonna have to hold off on going to Georgia, the brass wants to have a few meeting with me before I leave San Francisco.” 

“I thought this was our shoreleave? What’s the point of givin’ us time off if they're just gonna make you spend it in Official meetings?” Bones scowled. “How long you thinkin’ they’re gonna keep you here cause my Mama managed to coerce Jocelyn into lettin’ Joanna come visit for two of the three weeks we’re planetside and you know how much Joanna loves you. Hell she might even love you more than she loves me.” 

“C’mon Bones you know Joanna loves you more than the world, especially since you let her spend a week on the Enterprise the last time we were close to Earth. Anyway, they said it’ll only be the first three days that I’ll be stuck in meetings, and I mean at least they gave me a temporary apartment to ‘make up for it’ instead of a hotel room or god forbid a dorm room on the Starfleet campus.” Jim threw himself onto their bed with a flourish, making sure to take a quick peek through one half closed eye allowing him to see Bones shake his head fondly at him before turning away and go back to packing up some of their things. 

The crew of the Enterprise had managed to get an unprecedented three week long shoreleave, most definitely thank to Chris, to give the crew time to relax and recuperate from a mission gone awry as well as allow Starfleet to make updates and repairs to the ship. Turns out that a lot of new amenities and system upgrades had been made during their extended stay out in space and the admiralty wanted to take the time that they had the flagship home to make sure it was still the most well equipped and up to date ship in the fleet. 

Most of the crew, barring the senior crew and a few of the engineering department, had already left and scattered across the planet to start enjoying their well earned time off. The senior crew however had stayed an extra day on the ship to make sure that all their paperwork and duties were in order before they left or in Scotty’s case to make sure that the distillery that didn’t exist in engineering was properly dismantled and hidden away so the ‘Official Starfleet Command Engineers™’ didn’t report him for it. 

The thought of his friends brought an easy smile to Jim’s face, all of them had their individual plans for shoreleave yet they had all made sure to let Jim and Leonard know that they would be ‘conveniently in Georgia’ for the last week of their vacation and as such it was only logical to spend their time close to someone who could act as a tour guide around the state and show them the best of Georgia as Spock and Uhura had put it. It had become somewhat of a tradition for the senior crew to spend the last of their shoreleave with Bones and him. Sometimes it was the last day of a three day shoreleave on Risa other times it was the last few hours of a one day pit stop at a starbase for repairs but no matter what the cause was, the seven of them always got together to spend the last little bit of time relaxing together. At first Bones had been grumpy about it, claiming that he spent all of his time around everyone on a normal day, but he warmed up to it eventually after seeing that they were doing it because they genuinely wanted to spend time together as a group. 

Hell even Spock seemed to enjoy their new little tradition and not even secretly! He had actually stated, while surrounded by the six other members of the senior crew and completely unhindered by any alien substances or pollens or anything, that he enjoyed their company and found their conversations pleasant. 

The bed dipping down beside him drew him out of his thoughts and he rolled over onto his side to nuzzle gently at the side of Leonard’s neck, smiling softly when Bones wrapped his arms around him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. 

“I can practically hear that beautiful mind o’ yours turnin’, care to share what your thinkin’ about with the rest of the class?” 

“Just thinking about the crew.” He murmured softly. “It sounds ridiculous but I’m gonna miss them while we’re in Georgia.” 

Bones snorted. “You do realize that they’re coming to stay with us for the last week of shoreleave, right?”

“I know, it's just...well we’ve spent the last year in constant contact so it’s gonna be weird not having them around all day everyday, even just not having Spock around to play chess with after shift or talking about the new upgrades Scotty’s been making in engineering over lunch or having the linguistics club with Uhura every Monday night is going to be weird.” 

“As much as I hate to admit it I’m gonna miss the bastards for the two weeks they’re gone too.” Bones shifted around to lay on his back and pulled Jim up to rest almost completely on top of him. “You’re makin’ me go soft, kid. I never used to miss my co-workers back when I was workin’ in Georgia.” 

“You obviously didn’t have amazing as hell co-workers and _friends_ to miss.” 

* * *

“Bones, It’s just two or three days, I’ll be fine here by myself! Actually if you really think about it I won’t even technically be here by myself cause the brass is making Spock stay for the meetings as well. Go. See your mom. I’d rather you go ahead and be in Georgia to spend a few days with your family instead of sitting here in an empty apartment waiting for me to get home everyday.” 

“I can lounge around an apartment for three days Jim, hell I might even prefer it now that I know my Aunt Fidelia is going to be in town and probably hangin’ around with that idiot of a husband she has now a days.”

Jim frowned and idly twisted the strap of his duffel bag around his hand. “Your mom hasn’t seen you since we left Earth like 11 months ago, Bones. She wants to spend as much time as she can with you and I don’t want to deprive her of that. You see me everyday and when shoreleave is over you will continue seeing me everyday, she only gets to see you once in a blue moon.” Bones sat up and looked at him over the back of the couch he was currently lounging on. 

They had been talking about this for the past hour, ever since they had gotten off the Enterprise and had arrived at Jim’s temporary lodgings. In all honesty Jim really did want Bones to stay and spend the next three days with him, that way he knew he wouldn’t murder the admiralty after every stupid meeting they make him sit through but he loved Leonard’s mom and he couldn’t deprive her of her sons limited time and attention. 

Eleanor McCoy was like the mother everyone wished they had, she made every meal from scratch, baked homemade desserts, somehow always knew when you needed her to just listen to your problems and when you needed her to actually step in and give advice on how to solve your problems. She was the mother Jim had always wanted and honestly she was the biggest reason Bones and he had even managed to get together in the first place, if it wasn’t for her telling Leonard to grow a pair and act on his feelings for Jim the two of them would probably still be dancing around each other, convinced that the other could never possibly return their feelings. 

“Please Bones? Go to Georgia and spend three days alone with your mother. You’ll thank me later when you realize that I saved you from having to sit around all day doing nothing only to spend the nights listening to me complain about how Komack and Nogura are bureaucratic assholes that have been sitting behind their desks for so long that they can’t even remember what space looks like and how Locke is convinced that the only reason I’m captain is because I must have let Pike fuck me into the next lightyear.” 

“Locke is still saying that shit? After all the stuff you’ve done for Starfleet? Hell after all the damn times you’ve proven yourself to be a hundred times better of a captain than that sleaze ball could ever even dream of being?” Bones growled as he got up off the couch and circled around the large granite counter top that was strategically placed to separate the kitchen from the living area, he wrapped his arms around Jim’s back and leaned forward to rest his head against Jim’s shoulder. “I should stay here just so I can give that jackass a piece of my mind next time he says something like that to you, Darlin’.”

Jim smiled at the scowl he could feel against his bare shoulder, he laid one of his hands over Leonard’s where it was wrapped around his waist and brought it up to his lips to press a kiss to Leonard’s knuckles. “Don’t worry about it Bones. Spock gave him a piece of his mind last time Locke made any ‘untoward mentions of a fictitious arrangement with Admiral Pike’ not to mention Pike chewed him out in front of the rest of the admiralty as well.” 

Bones growled into his shoulder before spinning him around and pressing him into the counter with his body. “I still don’t like that asshole. He looks at you like he wants a piece of whatever he thinks Pike is gettin’ and I don’t want him gettin’ it in his mind that he can try and make any moves on you.” 

“ _Bones_.” Jim said with an exasperated laugh. “I’m a grown man I can handle a handsy admiral and even if I couldn’t Spock is going to be there with me and you’ve seen what he does to people who try to keep coming after me even after I’ve told them I’m not interested in them. Or have you forgotten what happened in that bar on Starbase 12 when you had to got back to medbay for an emergency and told me to just stay at the bar cause you didn’t think you would be gone for long?” Jim watched as a smirk played across Bones’ face as he no doubt remembered the scene he stumbled on when he came back in the bar later that night.

Jim had left the booth that he and the senior bridge crew had occupied for most of the night to go and get refills for everyone's drinks. While he was leaning against the bar waiting for the bartender to come and take his order a trio of very large and admittedly not the great looking men had come up to the bar and surrounded him. One of them had very rudely propositioned him, saying that a pretty pair of lips such as his would be better off wrapped around his cock instead of a bottle and despite his insistence that he was not in fact interested in sucking any of their dicks at the time, the three men had continued to harass him. 

After the first few disgusting mental images they had sent his way he had just taken to ignoring them, instead focusing on ordering his drinks and watching intently as the bartender prepared them. But the real problem came when he picked up the tray of drinks and attempted to make his way back to his booth. The three of them had crowded around his back, forming what was essentially a triangle of man around him, when he tried to push through them they started pushing him back against the counter and jeering at him. He had set the tray of drinks back down and was about to start busting some heads in when the three clowns had decided that they also had had enough of waiting and grabbed him. Before he could even register what was going on the other two had already sprung into action, grabbing and groping at whatever parts of him they could, while the other one moved to try and drag him out of the bar. 

Tweedle Dickhead had actually managed to drag him a few feet before Spock came out of fucking nowhere and yanked him away from Jim. One of Tweedle Dickhead’s minions had immediately tried to go and attack Spock only to get Vulcan nerve pinched, while the other one started yelling at Spock to either ‘go the fuck away or to wait his fucking turn’ Jim was still to this day unsure of what the asshole had actually yelled but it had distracted the guy long enough for Jim to slam his head backwards and break the guy's nose and the force of their heads colliding was enough to knock the guy out cold. That was of course when Tweedle Dickhead decided it was as good a time as any to get up from where Spock had thrown him and charge at the half-vulcan, punching him in the side of the head while he was distracted by Jim and Tweedle Dumbass. 

The look on his face when Spock not only didn’t go down from the punch but instead just turned to look at him with one immaculate eyebrow arched up was priceless and almost as good as the look on his face when Bones, having just got back from the ship and having heard the commotion, walked right up behind him, spun him around and socked him right in the jaw. 

“Yeah I remember alright. For once it was a good thing to have the hobgoblin around. Otherwise those three assholes probably woulda’ dragged ya right outta the bar and to god knows where.” Bones huffed. 

“Which is why you shouldn’t worry about Admiral Locke and instead you should go get on the shuttle and go to Georgia.” 

Bones sighed and leaned down to give Jim and long, slow kiss. “Fine. But I’m telling Spock to keep an eye on Locke and you before I leave. And you better not get yourself into any trouble in the three days we aren’t together, ya hear me? It’s still a few hours in a shuttle from Georgia to here so I won’t be able to patch up every little scrape and bruise ya get.” He said softly, breaking out of the kiss and resting his forehead against Jim’s. 

“I’ll try my hardest not to get into any kind of trouble Bonesy. Just for you. Now we’ve gotta go and get you to the shuttle station cause the shuttle we have scheduled is gonna leave in half an hour.” 


	2. Gifts Once Given Can Not Be Sent Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spock and Jim deal with Starfleet Admiralty and Jim realizes just how much he misses Bones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so this chapter is another slow chapter. Chapter 3 is going to be a bit faster paced with a bit more action. _Also_ since I kind of copped out of Writing Christopher Pike during _And So He Suffered_ I have decided that he is gonna get some time in the sun during this story. 
> 
> Whether or not you guys think he's in character is another story. (There was a reason I didn't write him during _And So He Suffered_ )

Jim sighed as he walked through the door of the apartment and threw his satchel full of PADDs onto the countertop, he had just barely even made it through the first day of these stupid meetings with the admiralty and he was already exhausted and missing his Bones. 

Part of him definitely regretted sending Bones home to Georgia ahead of him instead of letting him staying in San Francisco with him, but that part was immediately quieted when he remembered the look on both Bones’ and Eleanor’s faces when they had video comm’d him to let him know that Leonard had made it to Georgia safely. 

Eleanor had even taken the time to call him back after she had purposefully sent Leonard out to do something so that she could privately thank him for giving her two more days with her son even though she knew Jim probably wanted him to stay there with him so he could vent about that horrible politics of dealing with the chain of command. 

He was tempted to call Bones and complain about the shit he had to deal with in these stupid meetings but he honestly didn’t want to sour the no doubt good mood Bones alway got when he was able to spend time with his mother. It had taken Jim a while to actually understand and comprehend that not all mother were like his; that some mothers actually genuinely cared for _all_ of their kids and didn’t actually hated them but once he came around to that idea, mostly because of the stories that his senior crew had shared about the wonderful moments they had with their mothers growing up, he began to realize just how much of a mama’s boy Leonard Horatio McCoy was. 

His boyfriend practically turned into a warm puddle of heartfelt goo whenever he was around his mother, even more so if he was around his mother and Joanna and he had it on good authority that when Bones was around his mom, Joanna and Jim at the same time it was like he was a completely different person. 

Gone was the grumpy old doctor and in his place was a laid back and relaxed man, granted he was still a bit grumpy whenever Jim or Joanna had the misfortune of hurting themselves while they were out roughhousing and galavanting around the McCoy’s ranch but he was more relaxed and at peace when he was surrounded by his three favorite people than he was any other time, except for maybe after he and Jim had a few amazing rounds of sex. 

Another sigh escaped Jim as he was reminded of the fact that he wouldn’t have Leonard around him for three whole days, which probably wouldn’t sound like much to a normal person, but for someone who had been in constant contact with their significant other day in and day out for years it was like saying he wouldn’t see him for three weeks. It also didn’t help that Jim was going to have to sleep alone for the next three days for what felt like the first time in forever. Even when they weren’t together as a couple Jim and Bones had slept in the same room back at the academy and more often than not once they had gotten onto the Enterprise they usually stayed together either in Jim’s quarters or in Leonard’s. 

He whined and dropped his chin down onto his hand trying to think of what he could do to for the night; after a few seconds of silent deliberation in his mind he decided to just go ahead and comm Bones to see what he was doing. But as he was reaching for his bag to get his communicator his eyes caught sight of something on the coffee table in the livingroom. Jim frowned slightly and slowly walked towards the coffee table, there was a medium sized box wrapped in science blue colored wrapping paper with a command gold colored bow tied tightly around it. A quick second glance revealed a small tag tied to the side of the package with _‘Hope you like your gift Baby. I’ll see you soon.’_ written on the inside of the tag. 

A smile lit up his face as he read the message. “I guess Bones missed me to.” He giggled to himself as he unwrapped to the package. Inside was a small stuffed bear with soft white fur and a cute little replica Starfleet command uniform, he looked at the bear for a minute or two, trying to figure out why the bear looked ridiculously familiar but he was not quite able to put his finger on why.

The sound of the apartments buzzer jolted him out of his contemplation and he quickly took off his jacket and laid it on top of the table as well as the box and the bear before jogging over to the door and giving it the command to open. 

“Spock!” Jim yelped as the door slid open to reveal the form of his first officer. “Come in, I thought you were going back to the apartment they assigned you after the meetings concluded?” 

Jim stepped aside and practically skipped back into the kitchen of his temporary apartment, already beginning to input the specifications for Spock’s favorite tea into the replicator without even turning back to make sure Spock came in. 

Spock watched him from the edge of the countertop with the Vulcan equivalent of amusement on his face. “I had intended to but when I arrived I found the apartment to be, somewhat ‘lonely’ I believe would be the correct word.” 

Jim tilted his head to the side in confusion. “How can it be lonely? Is Uhura not there at the moment, I thought she didn’t have to attend any communications meetings since she got everything in order before leaving the Enterprise?”

“Much like you did with Doctor McCoy I insisted that Nyota go forward with our plans as to get the most fulfillment out of our shoreleave while I spent three days in San Francisco as necessary for the command meetings. I...admit that I did not realize how...used to Nyota’s near constant company I have grown.” 

Jim smiled at the admission. “So now that she’s gone you’re realizing that it’s lonely without her?” 

“Affirmative, Jim.” 

“Well you’re in luck! I also happen to be lonely without Bones here, so why don’t we make the most of it and bask in each others company. I’m pretty sure I packed something we can do together to pass the time.” Jim said clapping his hands together as he moved across the room to grab his duffel bag. 

“If you are amenable to it I have brought a portable chess set along with me.” 

“If I’m amenable? Spock, when have I ever turned down a game of chess?”

* * *

“Captain in front of you is a PADD with the specifications of the repairs and upgrades that are currently being made to the USS Enterprise, If you would please read over the information and make sure it is accurate before signing off on the reports.” Admiral Komack nodded to the PADD in front of Jim before turning his attention back to the meeting’s itinerary. 

Barnett waited until Jim had signed the document and handed the PADD to a nearby yeoman before continuing where Komack left off. “Before we conclude the meeting for today I wish to discuss the mission that is being assigned to the Enterprise for when the repairs and upgrades are finished.” 

“I was under the impression that the crew of the Enterprise would be getting three weeks of shoreleave before we shipped out for our next mission?” Jim asked, making sure the confusion was clear in his voice. 

Admiral Locke shot Jim an irritated look from across the table. “You will be Kirk, however once the repairs are done in three weeks we want the crew of the Enterprise to be able to ship out _immediately_ for this mission and as such we believe it to be easier to debrief you and Commander Spock now so that once you get back from shoreleave you already have the details of your next assignment in your mind and we can forgo wasting our time telling you later.” 

Barnett grabbed two PADDs from his yeoman and slid them across the table to Jim and Spock. “Your next assignment is on the planet Yalis III, it’s out in the beta quadrant and they gained membership to the Federation approximately three years ago. There is a diplomatic conference happening on the planet in four weeks, which gives you your promised three weeks of leave as well as a week to make it out to the planet.” 

“May I inquire as to why a diplomatic conference on a known peaceful federation planet requires the presence of the Federation's flagship?” 

“You may Commander Spock. Up until two weeks ago the planet of Yalis III has been waging a civil war between two rivaling factions. The main government has requested that the Federation send in some moderators to try and help keep the peace between the two factions as they attempt to broker a treaty, we have granted it because according to the main government the last two attempts at meeting to negotiate a treaty were interrupted by several extremists from the rivaling faction murdering representatives that were sent by the main government.” 

Jim furrowed his brows in confusion as he read over the specification of both the mission parameters and the planets information. “If they have been engaging in a civil war then why are they classified as a peaceful planet and more than that isn’t it in the regulations that any planet amidst any kind of war is not allowed acceptance into the Federation until they have successfully stopped warring?” 

Pike looked at Jim with amusement and pride in his eyes. “Look at you, reading up on your regulations, son. But you are correct. Planets are not accepted into the Federation until they have solved their governmental problems, however Yalis III was not engaged in civil war at the time that they petitioned to join the Federation. According to the Supreme Chancellor of Yalis III, it was not until after they petitioned and were accepted to join that people started to go against the main government. Apparently some of the people on Yalis III were not as happy as the Supreme Chancellor to join the Federation.” 

Jim sat back and shot a look at Spock. “So we’re going to Yalis III to mediate for these two rivaling factions, in the hopes that because Starfleet has men on the ground it might make the extremists back down? You guys do realize that even if they sign the treaty it’s not going to make the extremists suddenly decide to stop wanting the planet to drop out of the Federation.” 

The admiralty exchanged looks before Locke answered with an annoyed sigh. “We all realize that even if you get the treaty signed it might not make a difference but at this point they have only asked us to assist them with brokering a treaty. Not with dealing with the rival facti-” 

“And you need their dilithium mines on the south side of the planet so it doesn’t really matter if the war actually gets solved as long as the Supreme Chancellor is happy enough with our response that he’ll keep giving us the rights to mine and use the dilithium.” Jim interrupted with an air of irritation. 

Locke’s eyebrow twitched and Jim could see the irritation simmering behind his eyes. “No one needs your damn smart talk, Captain. Need I remind you that you are supposed to follow orders not question them.” Locke growled. 

Pike held a hand up to stop Jim’s retort before he even got going. “Either way, we need you to broker the treaty and hopefully if the extremists see that the federation actually cares about stopping the war and maintaining the health and wellness of the citizen of Yalis III that might make them settle down and allow the planet to go back to being peaceful.” 

“Admiral Pike, do you truly believe that the extremists will see our attempts at securing the treaty as a show of helpfulness and not a show of unnecessary meddling and possibly even greed?” Spock asked quietly. 

Pike smirked and made sure Spock saw his determined gaze shoot towards Jim before answering. “I am positive that Captain Kirk will prove to them that the Federation does truly care about their people. Well, I believe now that we have the details flushed out, that this would be a good time to conclude this meeting, right Admiral Barnett?” 

“Yes, this meeting is concluded and we will pick up where we left off tomorrow morning.” 

Jim rolled his eyes at the abrupt ending of the meeting but let it go and got up anyway, only waiting until he was sure that Spock was following him before turning and leaving the room. They made it about 200 feet out of the door before he huffed in irritation and sent a half-hearted glare his way. “Can you believe this? The admirals don’t even give a shit about those people or the war that’s probably destroying their planet. All they care about is the damn dilithium.”

Spock stopped him with a hand gently placed on his shoulder, it was a move that was happening more frequently now that Spock had finally started warming up to touching his friends but it was still uncommon enough that it made Jim pause in his tracks. 

“Captain, I believe Admiral Pike wanted us assigned to this mission because he believes that you do actually care for the people of this planet even though you have not met them. A belief which I also hold and furthermore it is one that has evidence to back up its claim. Even your irritation at the admiralty's not so innocent intentions is in itself proof that Admiral Pike was right in his assumption. I am sure that the citizen of Yalis III will also be able to see what Pike and I see in you, as you have a unique ability to have people trust you even when they have just met you.” 

Jim sighed in frustration, scraping his nails across his scalp as he ran his hand through his hair. He knew Spock was telling the truth, the man hadn’t once told him a lie when it came to his opinion about Jim’s character and if Spock thought that Pike was running on the same wavelength as his, well then chances are Spock was right. 

But still that didn’t make him feel any better knowing that he was going to be going to Yalis III solely to secure Starfleet’s mining rights to the dilithium on the planet. At the very least he now only had two more days of dealing with the admiralty's shit before he could head to Georgia and shack up with his boyfriend and his family and enjoy some quality time without Starfleet looming over him, the thought of Bones was quickly able to chase away the sinking that had been settling in the pit of his stomach ever since Bones left. 

He sighed again throwing a sheepish glance Spock’s way. “You wanna come over and play some more chess? I really don’t feel like going back to an empty apartment and I don’t think Bones is going to be available for a comm call anytime soon, he supposed to be going out with his mom and sister to help them with their shopping bags or something.” He said with a bright smile sent Spock’s way, trying to hide the unease he was feeling. 

“Of course, Jim.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for Reading.
> 
> As always thank you for any kudos or comments you leave! They literally fuel my writing and make my day.


	3. Out of the Meetings and Into the Frying Pan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more StarFleet meetings, Some not so fun interactions with Admiral Locke and a very nasty surprise are in store for poor Jim this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to get rolling in this chapter, not anything _good_ mind you, or at least not anything good for Jimmy but things are a' rollin' 
> 
> Sadly enough for Jim it's only gonna get worse for him.

“Hey Spock.” Jim said softly as he turned the corner and saw Spock standing at the front door of the apartment complex their temporary housing was in. They were just about to head out to the main Starfleet campus for the next round of shitty meetings.

“Hello Jim.” Spock replied, a slight frown marring his face as he took in Jim’s appearance. It wasn’t noticeable to any strangers but to someone who knew Jim it was startlingly clear that he was worried at the very least. “Are you alright Jim? You look...worried...I believe is the word I’m look for? Is something troubling you?”

Jim sighed and glanced around quickly before moving closer to Spock’s side. “I’m probably being paranoid but I think I might be getting followed.” 

Spock furrowed his brow at the admission, he didn’t want Jim to think he didn’t trust his judgement but the odds of Jim actually being stalked while on the Starfleet campus were very slim. Almost slim enough to completely discredit the theory, but then again when has logic ever adhered itself to Jim Kirk’s life? 

Instead he motioned Jim to follow him and walked towards a room he knew was a private conference style lounge for the tenants of the apartment complex, once Jim was inside he swiftly shut and locked the door behind them, making sure to flip the vacancy sensor to ‘occupied’ so that no one attempted to disturb them. 

“May I make an inquiry of what exactly has brought this feel to your attention, Jim?”

Jim bit his lip and gave Spock a sheepish look. “Listen I know it’s kinda crazy and I’m probably gonna sound like a paranoid idiot but yesterday afternoon once you left I decided to go out and get something to eat instead of staying in, cause I was bored as all hell, and when I left the apartment there was a guy standing against the wall a few doors down the hallway. Now, I couldn’t see his face because he had a hat on and he was angled away from me but, I don't know, something just made me feel off when I saw him.” 

When Jim stopped to pause and glance at him Spock nodded at him to continue. “Then when I got to the front door he was just coming out of the elevator. The whole time I was walking to the restaurant he was following behind me and I mean yeah, the restaurant was on Main Street so it’s possible that he was only following me because he was going somewhere else.”

Spock’s slight frown made another appearance as he listened to Jim’s description of the man's behavior. “Is it possible that it was a reporter? As captain of the Federation’s flagship you are a constant presence in media when you are not in space. Perhaps someone learned of our shoreleave and intended to ‘get an inside scoop’ I believe is the correct phrase.” 

Jim groaned and ran his hands through his hair, he paced around the room, a grimace marring his normally striking features. “That’s the thing Spock I’ve been tailed by reporters before. This...this. I don’t know it doesn’t seem the same! When I came out of the restaurant I didn’t see him so I thought that maybe he really had just been walking the same way but then I looked behind me and there he was. Just like when I was going to the restaurant he was like maybe a hundred feet back or so.” 

“Perhaps we should alert Admiral Pike and see if perhaps we can get access to the security feed from the apartment complex and at the very least identify this man. If we are able to identify him as a reporter or as a known photographer perhaps that may ease your mind?” 

“Yeah I guess that’s probably for the best.”

* * *

“Alright that concludes this meeting, unless either of you two have anything more to say?” 

“No Admiral Barnett, I don’t think Commander Spock or I have anything else to add.” Jim agreed, he was aching to just get this meeting done and over with so he and Spock could talk to Pike, the sooner he told Pike what was going on the sooner they could figure out whether he was actually in trouble or if his gut was just steering him the wrong way. 

“Chris! Hey, uh, Spock and I need to talk to you.” He said once the other admirals had cleared out. 

At Spock’s urging Jim told Pike everything that he had told Spock adding on the fact that he had seen the man walking behind them when he and Spock were on their way over to the main campus that morning. 

“And you are absolutely sure it was the same man following you this morning that followed you yesterday?” Pike asked once he was finished telling him what had happened. 

“Yeah I know it was him, he had on a different hat but he was on the other side of the room when Spock and I came out of the conference room and he literally walked like half a block behind us the whole way to this building.” 

Spock looked at him with slightly pursed lips, which in Spock language was practically radiating irritation. “Why did you not alert me to the fact that your potential stalker had been following us, as my vulcan biology might have allowed me to ascertain a better visual of his face from that distance.” 

Jim bit his lip and let out a frustrated groan. “I don’t know. There-There’s just something about this guy that is setting me on edge. I mean I can’t even describe it, it feels like I know him somehow but at the same time I don’t have any idea who he is.”

“What do you mean you feel like you know him?” Pike asked. 

“ I think it’s something in the way he walks maybe? It’s just... I feel like I know him but...maybe that’s why he’s wearing a hat and sunglasses? Because I might recognize him if he didn’t cover his face?” 

Pike sighed and slumped back in his chair. “Well kid, your gut hasn’t failed me yet so I’ll put in a request to have the apartment complex send over the security tapes but if this guy is wearing a hat and glasses there is a good chance it won’t help anything.” 

“Look I know that, but if this guy is actually a real stalker and isn’t some asshole reporter or a paparazzi then I don’t want to take the chance that he follows me when I go on shoreleave. Bones and I are going to be spending two weeks with Joanna and I don’t want to take a chance that someone might take her or hurt her to try and get to me.” 

There was a thoughtful look on Spock’s face for a moment before he placed his hand over Jim’s shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. “Your worry for Dr.McCoy’s daughter is the reason for the worried expression that you had when you realized that this man was in fact following you this morning and last night?” 

“Yeah, the last thing I want is someone to hurt Joanna because they want to get to me. Hell I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if something happened to her and it was my fault.” He said softly, his eyes were focused on the floor but Spock could feel how he tensed up at the mention of Joanna. 

Pike walked over to him and rested his hand on his other shoulder, he waited until Jim looked up and met his gaze. “Hey, don’t worry Jim. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that this guy, whoever he is and however big or small a threat he actually is, gets caught.” 

Pike picked up his PADD and immediately began drafting a message to the owner of the apartment complex asking for the security tapes to be sent to his personal PADD as quickly as possible. Once he was done that Jim and Spock asked him if he had any plans for lunch and as he did not in fact have any plans the three of them decided to go ahead and get lunch together before reconvening for the last set of meetings for the day. 

If all three of them continually kept an eye out for a man in a hat, sunglasses and a dark colored jacket, well, none of them were going to say anything about being paranoid.

* * *

“Captain! Captain Kirk! If you would be so kind as to slow down for a minute I need to talk to you.” 

Jim had to physically stop himself from growling as he heard Admiral Locke’s gravelly voice calling out his name. If he was honest with himself it was incredibly tempting to just keep walking and pretend as if he hadn’t heard Locke calling his name. As the Admiral jogged up behind him he was seriously beginning to regret not walking back with Spock, but at the time he hadn’t wanted to wait for Spock to get done helping one of the Starfleet academy science professors fix one of the labs. 

He took in a deep breath and released it slowly before turning to face Locke. “What can I do for you Admiral?” 

“I noticed your First Officer was held up at the science labs and Admiral Pike is tied up with some administrative problems, so I thought that since you are here all alone you are probably bored. What’s say you and I go get a couple of drinks?”

Jim took one look at the downright _hungry_ look Locke was giving him and decided that the last thing he wanted to do was go get drinks with this sleaze ball. “Uh, with all do respect sir, we still have meetings most of tomorrow and I’d rather not have a hangover during them.” 

“Oh c’mon Kirk, it’s just a couple of drink between colleagues. It’s not like you are going to go and get blackout drunk or anything, and even if you do there are hypo’s that cure hangovers right away.” 

Kirk plastered on a fake smile and shrugged the hand that Locke had put on his shoulder off, though he prided himself on the fact that he had managed to make it seem like he had done it to check his watch rather than do it to get Locke’s hand off of him. “I, uh really don’t think it’s appropriate for me to go out drinking with an admiral, _sir_.” 

But it was obvious that Locke had no intentions of taking ‘no’ for an answer. “Well I guess it's a damn good think that you’ve never really been one for being ‘appropriate’, huh Kirk? Besides you and Pike are always buddy buddy with each other. I’m sure you’ve gotten more than a few drinks with him.” Locke crowed as he slung an arm over Jim’s shoulder and started dragging him along. 

Kirk smiled tightly and allowed himself to be drug along by the Admiral but inside his head he was cursing the fact that not only was Locke a higher rank than him, and a higher rank with a lot of friends in pretty high places, but he was also at least a couple inches taller than him and more than a little bit broader than him and it didn’t help that unlike Komack and Nogura, Admiral Locke had not let himself get out of shape now that he had a desk job. So he just had to deal with it as the Admiral dragged him away, though after a few minutes it was clear that the admiral was in fact dragging him in the direction of his office instead of taking him to any kid of bar or lounge establishment. 

“Admiral? Where exactly are we going?” 

“To my office. There aren’t any good bars around here and I always prefer one on one type conversations and those are best held without the disgusting atmosphere of a campus bar filled with cadets and instructors. And drop the formal title Kirk, I’m sure we are going to be much more well acquainted by the end of the night.” 

Now that got Jim’s mind working in overdrive as he read the double meaning in that statement, it was startlingly obvious that Locke was still working under the impression that Jim was apparently ‘having sex with Pike in return for favors’ and he was taking him to his office to get him drunk and hopefully coerce him into trading in his supposed deal with Pike for a deal with him. 

“Actually Sir, I just realized that I promised my boyfriend I would comm him when I got out of today’s meetings and I’d really rather not keep him waiting, he gets a bit grumpy if I don’t call him to let him know I haven’t managed to get myself killed while he’s away so I should just head on my way.” Jim chuckled uneasily as he forcefully wiggled his way out from under Locke’s arm but he only managed to get about half a foot away before Locke was grabbing him by the arm and pulling him flush up against his chest. 

“C’mon now Kirk, don’t be like that, I’m sure the good doctor will be fine with this. And even if he isn’t I think if he comes back to the Enterprise once all the upgrades are done and finds that his medbay is ten times better than any other other medbay in the fleet he’ll be more than happy that you missed his call.”

Jim frowned at the suggestion that Bones would be willing to whore him out for some upgrades to his medbay. “I really should be going Admiral.” He said again, trying to push away from Locke’s chest with the one arm that wasn’t being held in his iron grip. 

Locke’s smirk quickly turned into a frown as he gripped Jim’s wrist tighter. “Why are you playing so hard to get, Jimmy? Do you want more? How about I throw in a few upgrades to your science department for that Half-Breed of yours and maybe if you show me how good you can be I’ll throw in some upgrades for your other departments.” Locke ground out as he started trying to pull Jim in the direction of his office. 

“I’m not having sex with you for upgrades.” Jim hissed out using Admiral Locke’s temporary stunned state at being talked to so rudely to break free of his hold. “You should be glad I’m not going to the brass and having you court martialed for sexual harassment.” 

Locke’s no doubt scathing retort was cut off by the sound of Spock’s voice coming from directly behind Jim. “Perhaps you _should_ have the Admiral court martialed, Captain, as bribery is illegal in Starfleet as is attempting to coerce sexual favors from other officers. It is even further frowned upon to attempt to coerce sexual favors from officers that are of lower rank than you.” Spock stated, his voice was pitched lower than normal and held no small amount of disdain and disgust directed towards the Admiral. “To see an Admiral behaving with such disregard for the regulation is even more heinous.” 

“I think you need to keep your nose out of other people’s business, _Commander_.” Locke was clearly irritated by the turn of events but even he knew when he was outmatched. He probably could have convinced enough people that Jim Kirk was lying about being sexually harassed by him but he knew he wouldn’t be able to convince them that Spock was lying as well. With an aggravated huff Locke stormed off in the other direction, leaving Jim and Spock standing on the sidewalk. 

Jim sighed and rubbed the spots on his arms where Locke had been holding on. “I hate that asshole.”

“Captain, I was not as humans would say ‘joking’ when I said I believe you should have the Admiral brought up on charges of sexual harassment. This is not the first time I have been privy to Admiral Locke attempting to coerce sexual favors from you.” Jim bit hit lip, turning sharply to start walking in the direction of his apartment, Spock’s voice and soft footsteps being the only thing that let him know the vulcan was still walking with him. “Furthermore even Leonard has seen and heard Admiral Locke’s advances enough to warn myself and Admiral Pike that he believes you should not be left alone with him.” 

He stopped short, spinning around rapidly to face Spock and he would have slammed into Spock’s chest if it weren’t for Spock taking a firm but gentle grip on his arms. “I told Bones not to say anything! He’s just some asshole who thinks he knows who I am and wants sex for favors.” Jim argued desperately. “The meetings are over for the day. We have one meeting tomorrow morning and then I’m going to meet Bones in Georgia and when we are done shoreleave we are immediately going back into the black. I won’t have to deal with Locke after tomorrow morning.”

Spock looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a small frown. “Look, Spock, I’m gonna call Bones and then turn in for the night.” Jim said with an aggravated flourish of his wrist while he used the other hand to route around in his pocket for his communicator. 

A frown to match Spock’s formed on his face as his hands came back empty. “God damn it! I must have left it in the apartment this morning. Whatever. I’m going back to my apartment.”

* * *

This was the third time that Jim had come back to his apartment and sighed before even looking around. He was thankful as hell that after tomorrow he would be able to go to Georgia and be with Bones, hell he would be thankful to go anywhere and get away from the Starfleet brass. God he just wanted to skip the next morning meetings and just head down to Georgia but he knew he couldn’t, Pike would probably chew him out for missing the last of the meetings even though they had literally done nothing but discuss the upgrades as well as talk to Spock about whether he needed more Science Department personnel. 

Jim rubbed a hand over his eyes as he waited for the replicator to spit out his order of hot chocolate. Whenever he was really irritated or upset Bones would always make him hot chocolate, whether from a replicator if they were on the Enterprise or from scratch if they were   
actually back on Earth. The soft chime of his communicator going off in the other room drew his attention away from the replicator, it was most likely Bones sending him a message. Spock had probably realized that he had no intention of telling Bones what had happened with Admiral Locke and took it into his own hands by telling Bones himself. 

After checking that the replicator still needed another minute to produce his drink he resigned himself to listening to at least an hour of Bones talking his ear off about how he needed to take Locke up on charges and send the bastard away to a penal colony. As he walked into the bedroom he was actually surprised to see that his communicator was lying neatly on top of the covers of his bed. Mostly he was surprised, because not only had he been damn sure that he had left it on top of the bureau in the corner, but he knew for a fact that he hadn’t made the bed that morning and he certainly hadn’t made it with a blanket that he used to sleep with when he was a 10 year old kid. 

A blanket that he had made sure to leave behind when he was forcefully taken out of Winona and Frank’s house by Children Protective services. 

With a shuddery gasp he quickly dove for the communicator, hell bent on comming Pike and telling him that he needed him to come get him and bring a crime scene unit with him. But the message that was displayed on the screen as he turned the communicator over stopped him dead in his tracks. 

**'Turn around James.’**

Jim heard the floor creak behind him and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, desperate to avoid the truth for even a second longer. But finally he decided to face the music, he slowly turned around and had to bite back a whimper as he stared down the barrel of a phaser pointed directly between his eyes. 

“Hello, Baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Jimmy. Who possibly could be in your room? No one nice I'll tell you that right now. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading, giving kudos and commenting!


	4. Georgian Sunrise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bones gets a call from Spock and a visit from a very nasty old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4! A somewhat irritating chapter to write as I accidentally erased half of it while trying to edit it. 
> 
> Anywho, Bones, Spock and Pike are starting to find out somethings wrong. (Don't worry Spock and Pike will regret not keeping a better eye on Jim, but that's _later_ )
> 
> I'm trying real hard to get better at writing Spock and Pike. Spock is actually giving me a lot less trouble than he was is ASHS but Pike is still a bit of unknown territory for me. I'm trying to write him as genuinely caring and concerned for Jim in like a fatherly-mentor sort of way without him coming off as like babying Jim and being patronizing. (Cause if there's anyone who knows how badass and capable Jim is, it's probably Pike.) 
> 
> Bones however, fucking killed me this chapter. It was like pulling out an angry southern doctor's teeth without anesthetic, trying to get him to stay in character and do what I wanted him to do.

At 0935 in the morning Bones was rudely awoken by the sound of his communicator going off on the bedside table, he jolted up out of his bed and reached over to pick it up. “McCoy.” He answered tersely. 

“Doctor, Is Captain Kirk with you?” 

McCoy’s brows furrowed in confusion at the question. “Spock what are you talking about? I thought that your meetings were supposed to continue till 1300 hours today?” 

“Leonard, that does not answer my question. Is Captain Kirk with you.” 

Bones, upon hearing the edge of worry in Spock’s normally monotone voice, quickly got out of bed. He moved around the room at a whirlwind pace grabbing his clothes out of his suitcase and throwing them on just barely managing to keep him communicator in his hand. “No! No, he’s not Spock. I haven’t even talked to him since yesterday morning when he was getting ready to head off to your morning meetings!” 

That made Spock pause. “He did not call you at approximately 1755 yesterday afternoon?” 

“What? No, no he didn’t. What the hell is going on!” McCoy yelled. 

He made a grab for his PADD turning it on and urging it to start up faster as he tried to check and see if maybe Jim had left him a message or something instead of trying to comm him. He still had no idea what the hell was going on but if it was bad enough that _Spock_ was sounding noticeably worried over the communicator, well that meant that something horrible had happened. 

For a few seconds Spock didn’t say anything and right as Bones was about to ask again what the hell was going on Spock started talking. “We have been waiting for The Captain to arrive to begin our last meeting of the day. He is currently 35 minutes late, however he has not answered any of the comm’s Admiral Pike and I have sent him, he also did not respond to any of the comm’s I sent him last night.” Spock said. 

“Furthermore, this morning I attempted to meet him at his apartment so that we would be able to walk to the meetings together as I had multiple things to discuss with him but he did not answer his door and I had assumed he had already left. Once I arrived at the meeting it was clear that he was not there.”

McCoy growled irritably and glared down at the communicator in his hands. “So you assumed he hopped onto a shuttle heading to Georgia and skipped out on the last set of meetings?” 

“I admit the thought had crossed my mind. Obviously now I am aware that is not what happened.” 

“Look, I’m gonna finish getting dressed and then I’m gonna get on the first shuttle back to San Francisco. I can probably be there before 1200 hours.” 

“Doctor that is unnecess-”

“Bye Spock!” Bones said into the communicator as he hung up. 

He lobbed the communicator onto his bed and grabbed a hold of his suitcase. He hauled it up over his bed and dumped out everything that was inside onto the covers. After a quick look around the room he grabbed a duffle bag and one of the emergency med kits he had prepared specifically for Jim that contained only hypo’s that he knew Jim wasn’t allergic to as well as a few other medical necessities that he could use should Jim need them. 

Bones stuffed the bag full with the med kit, some of his clothing and most importantly he made sure to put his PADD and one of Jim’s back up PADD’s that had duplicates of his important files on it inside the duffle. With his luck Jim had probably just slept in, forgot about the meetings and then slept through Spock trying to get a hold of him but something in his gut was telling him that something bad was going on and he couldn't just sit back and ignore that feeling no matter how much he wanted to. 

If something did end up going wrong he definitely wanted to be there to make sure Jim was okay and fix him up if he got hurt. 

Knowing Jim he was probably going to end up getting hurt. 

He grabbed his bag and started to head down the stairs when his Ma called out his name. Frowning he picked up his pace and thundered down the stairs with the duffle bag slung over his shoulder and his PADD in his hand purchasing shuttle tickets back to San Francisco. “What is it Ma? I’m kind of in a hurry.” He yelled as he turned to corner only to stop short when he saw that his mother was standing in the kitchen with a stormy look on her face and his ex-wife standing next to her. 

“Jocelyn? What are you doing here, I thought you weren’t bringing Joanna over for another week at least.” 

 

“Where is she?” Jocelyn hissed, stomping over to him and thrusting one finger against his chest.

“Where is who - look I don’t have time for this. I need to get back to San Francisco.” He huffed and gently pushed past her to grab the keys to his Ma’s hovercar. “Ma I need you to drive me to the shuttle station.” 

Jocelyn grabbed his arms and forced him to turn around and look at her, her face a mosaic of fear, anger and desperation. It was a look he had never seen on his vindictive ex-wife's face and that alone made him pause and not just shake off her hand and keep walking like he wanted to. 

Her bottom lip trembled slightly but he couldn’t tell if it was because she was scared or if it was because she was really that angry at him. 

“Where. Is. She. I know you have her. You have to have her.” Jocelyn hissed at him again. 

“Jocelyn I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. I need to go and get on a shuttle. Jim is missing and I need to help find him.” Leonard yanked his arm out of Jocelyn’s grip and started walking towards the door.

“Oh How typical! Your daughter is missing and all you can think about is your little fuck toy! Is that why you fuck him? Because he’s young, Len? Jesus Christ you have a young daughter!”

“My daughter is nine and Jim is 25 years old! He’s not a fucking child, Jocelyn!” Bones bit hit lip to keep himself from turning around and ripping Jocelyn a new asshole, it was her go to argument whenever she and Leonard were in the same room together because she was convinced that he was only with Jim because he was _young_. But after a few seconds of anger his brain finally registered what the first part of her statement was. 

“What the hell do you mean Joanna’s missing!” 

His Ma gently put a hand on Leonard’s shoulder. “That is why I called you down here Len, apparently someone went to Joanna’s school and took her.” 

“How the fuck did they just walk into a school and take her? What kind of school do you have her in that they wouldn’t have any kind security and would just let a nine year old girl walk out with someone?” 

Jocelyn stormed up to him and gave him a violent shove right in the middle of his chest, he barely managed to recover and get his feet back under him before he fell over from the shove. “She didn’t just walk out you dumbass! A man from Starfleet walked in and told the office that you needed her at home but I wasn’t able to come get her. I didn’t even know she was gone until the office called me to ask for me to come get her backpack because she didn’t take it with her!” 

Jocelyn smacked him again in the chest. “Now who the hell did you have come get her and where is she.”

Bones growled at her and slapped her hands away from him. “I sure as hell did not have anyone go get her. Neither did Jim, he’s gone missing to.” Bones said softly, he ran his hands through his hair, grasping the short strands roughly as he thought over the information. “My boyfriend and my daughter are gone. I need to contact Starfleet, they can start up a search and find Joanna, hell they’ll have more resources and manpower to find her and Jim.” He whispered distractedly as he yanked his communicator out of his pocket, already halfway out of the door and dialing Spock’s number while urging his mother to follow behind him.

“Spock listen, Jim’s been -”

“Kidnapped. I am aware Doctor, in fact I was just about to call and inform you as Admiral Pike and I have finally gained access to Jim’s apartment, there is significant evidence leading to the conclusion of Jim’s absence not being voluntary.” 

“Damn it. That’s not the only thing. My daughters been kidnapped as well.” 

Bones heard a slight but sharp intake of breath from the other side of the communicator followed by the sound of Spock’s voice talking lowly away from the communicator presumably to Admiral Pike. “Doctor McCoy, are you sure your daughter has been taken?” Christopher Pike’s voice confirmed his suspicion as he fought to keep from yelling at Pike that, yes, of course he was sure his daughter was gone, what kind of man would make something like that up. 

Bones paused for a second before answering. “According to my ex-wife at around 9 this morning a man claiming to have been sent by Starfleet took my daughter out of school. Apparently he said that I needed to see her but my ex-wife Jocelyn was unable to come get her and had allowed me to send him in her stead. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Starfleet sent anyone to get my daughter.”

“You are correct McCoy, no one had any reason to send someone to get your daughter. Listen, I want you to come back to San francisco. You might be able to help the investigation and when we find them both Jim and Joanna are probably going to want you there.” 

“I’m already on my way, I’m about ten minutes from the nearest shuttle station I can be there in two hours.” He said curtly. 

“Good. I’m having the apartment complex pull up the security feed from last night because according to the logs, Jim’s door last opened at around 2000 hours, which means he’s most likely been missing for about 13 to 14 hours. Which is more than enough time to get from San Francisco to Atlanta, even if you are going by hovercar and not a shuttle and kidnap your daughter.”

* * *

Bones barely even took the time to grab his bag before sprinting off the shuttle platform and out to the hover car that Pike had sent to get him once he arrived. He ignored the drivers attempt at small talk the whole way to the main campus of the Academy, he ran from the curb straight to the apartment complex that Jim had been staying at and he didn’t allow himself to stop running until he reached the elevator that would leave him to Jim’s floor. 

The massive amount of Starfleet officers pouring in and out of one door alerted him to which one was Jim’s apartment and when he walked through the threshold he was immediately greeted with the sight of pure chaos. Books, clothing, linens were strewn all over, the lamps and the end tables along with some of the chairs and nightstands were overturned and a few of them even broken. 

Standing in the middle of the room talking to several red shirts were Spock and Admiral Pike, both of them had grim looks on there face, looks that only got worse once they saw that Bones had finally arrived. 

“So. Anyone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” 

Spock nodded at the red shirts who scattered around Bones before moving to collect a couple bags and leaving the room. Pike walked over to him and handed him a PADD that had a video pulled up on it. Leonard swallowed hard and hit play. 

The first video that played was obviously security footage of Joanna’s school. A dark haired man in a command gold Starfleet uniform , one that was most likely just grabbed out of a the first laundry shoot he could find if the way it didn’t fit right was an indicator, walked up to the front desk of the attendance office. There was no audio on the tapes so he couldn’t hear what was said and the man was facing away from the camera and towards the attendance worker so he couldn’t get a good look at the man’s face. 

The man remained facing away from the camera for a minute or two until the women at the desk picked up the phone, most likely calling Joanna’s teacher to send her to the office. When she turned away to talk on the phone the man turned and leaned his back against the front desk.

One look at the man's face and Leonard's blood ran cold. 

The PADD fell from his hand as his mind caught up to his eyes and recognized the identity of the man in the video. “He has Jim. He has my daughter.” Bones whispered breathlessly as he turn back to Pike and Spock. 

He could feel his breaths coming in quick, harsh pants, he felt lightheaded and he knew clinically that he was having a panic attack but he couldn’t stop himself from beginning to hyperventilate. 

 

“Doctor, you need to sit down.” 

 

He let Pike and Spock lead him over to a chair near the kitchen, he plopped down onto the chair heavily and ducked his head down between his knees, focusing as much as he could on steadying his fast breathing. Once he was sure he had his breathing under control he looked back up at Pike. 

“You know who that is right? The man that took my daughter? You know it’s Jim’s stepfather.” He asked quickly. 

“Yes we knew as soon as we watched the video, we are in the process of sending out an APB for Frank and an amber alert for Joanna. We’ve already sent a message out to all law enforcement agencies as well as some of the closer Federation planets to be on the lookout for Jim, Joanna or Frank.” 

Bones looked up sharply at that. “You think He’s going to take them off planet? If he gets into space we’ll never find them again!” 

“Doctor, it is doubtful that he would take them off planet as statistics show in the majority of kidnapping cases where the victim knows the kidnapper, the kidnapper usually attempts to take them back to a place that holds some kind of emotional or sentimental value to either the victim or the perpetrator.” Spock’s words may have been intended to give him some emotional relief but the hint of worry in his voice showed that even he wasn’t completely convinced that Frank would follow the statistics. 

Leonard got up from the chair and grabbed the PADD off the floor he scrolled through the videos again. With a shaky breath he pressed play on the second video. It was footage from a security camera in the lobby of the apartment complex, all it showed was the timestamp in the corner which read 1954 hours and a crystal clear image of Frank walking out with a smirk on his face, a duffle bag slung over one shoulder and a rolling suitcase getting drug along behind him. Then the video stopped. 

“Wait a minute, where’s Jim?” Bones asked a look of confusion on his face. 

Spock and Pike shared a look before Pike sighed. “We still aren’t sure how he managed to get Jim out of the apartment without the camera’s or anyone noticing but we think he might have somehow managed to take him out a stairwell or something similar. There aren’t any camera’s except for in the lobby, so he could have taken him out another way and then came back to get his stuff.”

Leonard frowned and looked at the PADD again. He brought up the video of Joanna’s school and watched it, he paused the video on Frank’s face when he turned away from the receptionist. As he sat back down on the chair he scrolled the video back to right before Frank turned around. There was something about the video that kept catching his eye. He played it two more times before he finally realized what was drawing his attention. 

In Frank’s hand was a communicator, the screen was lit up but the video was too small for him to make out what was on the screen. “Spock, Is there a way to enlarge a still from this video?” Bones asked quickly as he got up and thrust the PADD at Spock. 

Spock nodded sharply and grabbed the PADD out of his hand and walked over to where the television was in the corner of the room. He spent a minute tapping away on the PADD before the video showed up on the tv and few more taps and he had the picture focused solely on Frank’s lower body. 

“There. The communicator is in the middle of a call. Spock, zoom in on the communicator’s screen, maybe we can get the name of the person he was calling and figure out why he was calling them.” 

The picture zoomed in and the three of them waited with baited breath as the image took a second or two to clear up enough for them to actually see the name on the screen. 

“Donald McGareth.” Pike read the name out once the screen cleared. “I’m gonna call Security and see if we can’t get a home or work address for this guy and go talk to him.” Pike said as he grabbed his communicator and ducked out of the room while talking on it. 

Bones turned to Spock and ran his fingers through his hair while a rough sigh escaped his lips. 

“I have already contacted the rest of the senior bridge crew. They have been informed of Jim’s disappearance and are on their way back to San Francisco to aid us in finding Jim and Joanna.” Spock looked at him with slightly pursed lips. “I believe now would be an appropriate time to assure you that we will find Jim and Joanna and you need not worry.” 

Bones looked up at his in exasperation. “Spock, for all we know they...they could already be dead! I mean what idiot would keep a Starfleet captain and a child for this long? He has to know that as soon as someone sees him with either of them he's as good as dead.” 

“We will not give up on finding them alive until we have definitive proof that he has in fact killed them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you for reading, commenting and giving kudos! 
> 
> Chapter 5 is already done and it should be posted within the next few days.


	5. Let The Games Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim realizes who his stalker was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty! This was by far my favorite chapter to write out of the ones I have done so far. It focuses solely on Jim and Frank for this chapter but we will eventually see more of the ensemble space family later. Jim might seem _a little_ out of character this chapter (depending on how you characterize him) but I was kind of going for the whole 'adult faced with one of his worst childhood fears/enemies' vibe and in my mind Jim never _quite_ managed to get over what Frank did to him. As the story goes on, much like with ASHS, you will get more and more glimpses of what Frank did to Jim. 
> 
> Also, from here on out I will be posting a little list of major events that happened in each chapter in the end notes. It will include the event as well as the time (both in military and standard time) because at this point things are starting to happen at the same time. (For instance the stuff in this chapter technically happened _before_ chapter 4 but chapter 4 was put up first. 
> 
> Anyway onto the story!

_1700 hours (5:00 pm) - 18 hours 45 minutes earlier - Starfleet Academy Campus - San Francisco_

* * *

Jim heard the floor creak behind him and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, desperate to avoid the truth for even a second longer. But finally he decided to face the music, slowly he turned around and had to bite back a whimper as he stared down the barrel of a phaser pointed directly between his eyes. 

“Hello, Baby.” 

Jim’s breath was stuck in his throat and his brain had stopped in its tracks. 

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue, Jimmy?” Frank cooed at him, the barrel of the phaser moving to caress the side of his temple. 

“Frank…” 

Jim wasn’t able to hold back the whimper this time when the phaser moved down his neck and under his chin to lift it so he would be forced to look his step-father in the eyes. He swallowed hard as he took in the lecherous smirk that was on Frank’s face. 

Frank tapped the phaser against the underside of his chin. “Now we can do this one of two ways, Jimmy. Either you can do as I say and I won’t _have_ to stun you or I can go ahead and stun you and save myself some time.” 

He released a shaky breath. “I’ll do what you want.” _‘Just find some way to stall him until someone notices something is wrong or you can call for help.’_ Jim thought to himself. 

Frank’s smile grew and he stroked the phaser across his jawbone in what could have been a loving gesture if it weren’t for the fact that it was a phaser moving across his skin. “Strip. I want to see if your body has grown as beautifully as your pretty little face.” 

Jim stepped away from Frank, as he stepped back he reached for the zipper on his dress uniform, slowly he pulled it down to reveal his black undershirt. He let the thick fabric fall off his back to pool around his elbows and after a few seconds he flexed his arms to make the heavy shirt fall down the rest of the way to the floor. 

Next he grabbed the bottom of his undershirt and pulled up at a snail's pace, just how he knew Frank liked it. He felt the slow slide and shift of the silky fabric as it made its way up every inch of his back. 

“Take off your pants and then go get on the couch. I would like you on the bed but, I think the couch will be more _degrading_ for a first course, eh?” Jim jumped at the sound of Frank’s voice booming in the small area. 

Shaking, he turned around towards the couch. He let his hands fall down to his belt, quickly he yank it out of the belt loops and threw it onto the floor next to his feet. His fingers trembled when they came to rest on his zipper. He had to take a deep shuddery breath before he could still his hands enough to actually pull down his zipper. 

Jim took a few steps towards the couch and pushed the waistband of his pants down his legs. As he lifted one leg to rest his knee on the cushions he used the other to kick the pants away from where they had pooled around his ankle on the floor. 

He was about to turn around and face Frank when he saw something on the end table next to the couch that made his mind do metaphorical jumping jacks with joy. He didn't know how he had missed it for the last two days, but sitting on the end table was Bones’ phaser. He must have left it when they were rushing out the door to get Bones to the shuttle station and since Bones rarely ever even used it he must not have noticed it was left behind. 

He bit his lip and thought of how he could possibly get to the phaser without Frank noticing and decided that as soon as Frank’s attention was focused on him or on taking off his own clothes he would reach over and stun Frank. 

“You know, you were always so pretty as a little boy. Hell, the only reason I married your mother was because even at two years old I knew how beautiful you were going to be.” Frank murmured to himself. He walked over the threshold back into the main living area and circled around the back of the couch. “You mother was a pretty lady. But you, oh _you_ , I knew were going to grow up to be a hundred times as stunning. Just like those stars your parents loved so much.”

Jim mentally pleaded to whatever deity was out there and listening that he wouldn’t notice the phaser and take it so that Jim could have the chance to possibly just blow his head off. 

Frank smirked and sat down next to Jim. He trailed the phaser in his hand down Jim’s throat and over his sternum before letting it settled over his heart. “At first I thought I was going to have to be sneaky around your mother.” 

_‘Please let him stop talking and just get this over with.’_ Jim pleaded in his head. 

He chuckled and moved the phaser back underneath Jim’s chin and forced him to raise his head until all he could see was the fading paint that was slathered on the ceiling. “But then, oh then I realized that she was just as abusive as I was. Not in the same way of course. But abuse is abuse.” 

A hand came up to fondle his pectoral muscles and Jim had to force himself not to gasp when Frank pinched and twisted one of his nipples. “At least I liked you. She _hated you_. The few times she was even on planet all she did was attack you.” Frank sneered at him.

Jim squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face away when Frank leaned in close to his face. “I missed you Jimmy.” Frank suddenly leaned back with a big smile on his face. “But that doesn’t matter anymore, because you and I are going to make up for lost time right now.” 

“Frank, we don’t need to do -”

“Uh, Uh, Uh, Jimmy. We need this, we both need this.” Frank said softly. “Now lean back and take those boxers off. I want to see _all_ of you.” 

Jim sighed and turned so that his back was facing the armrest, as he went to lean back he placed one hand on the armrest to steady himself and left the other one on the waistband of his boxers. As soon as his back hit the armrest his hand shot out to grab the phaser which was lying about a foot away. But as soon as his hand left the armrest a jolt shot through hit body, like live electricity was being forced into all of his nerves, and just like that he was unable to move at all. 

Frank tutted at him softly. “Jimmy. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice a phaser sitting on the end table?”

Frank sighed and grabbed Jim’s leg pulling on it until Jim was laid out flat on the couch. All Jim could was stare at the ceiling while Frank got up. Jim could hear him walking away, most likely over to the front room, he could hear him rustling around in what sounded like a bag or maybe a suitcase. 

When he came back Frank made sure to turn Jim’s head to the side so that he could see the small duffel bag as well as the large rolling luggage case that he had brought over. Jim had to watch as Frank pulled out several pieces of rope, and all he could do was listen when he set them down on the coffee table with a loud _thunk_. 

“Now I was hopin’ that we could do this without me trussing you up like a Thanksgiving turkey but you kind of took the decision right outta my hands.” Frank said when he patted Jim on the cheek. “I was eventually gonna give you a choice of how I tied you up when we were ready to leave, but now I guess that burden falls on me.” 

Frank gave Jim a soft kiss on the cheek before forcefully turning him over onto his stomach. Frank pulled Jim’s arms behind his back and he pulled until Jim’s left wrist was lined up with his right elbow and then tied it off with one short piece of rope then he did the same with Jim’s other wrist. After making sure the knots holding his wrists in place were tight and not coming loose anytime soon, he grabbed one length of rope and quickly wrapped it around the middle of Jim’s forearms. 

He finished a knot to hold Jim’s forearms together and brought the tail end up over Jim’s left shoulder and crossed it down underneath Jim’s right armpit. Then he pulled the end of the rope through the coils on his forearm and looped it around over his right shoulder and back under Jim’s left armpit.

That left Jim with his wrists and forearms trapped firmly in place and the rope winding across below his throat in an ‘x’ formation. Frank finished the tie off by looping the remaining tail of the rope along his chest a few inches below his nipples and around his back a few times and tying it off as he intertwined it with the coils holding Jim’s forearms together. 

Frank gave a few short tugs to Jim’s arms, checking to make sure everything was in place and tight so that Jim couldn’t struggle free. Once he was satisfied with the tightness he leaned back with a sigh and a firm pat to Jim’s ass. 

“That should do it. I’ll tie your legs up later, no need to do it now since you aren’t going to be able to do anything without your arms.” Frank reclined against the back of the couch for a minute before reaching over and tugging Jim head first over onto his lap, he left his head facing the end table, where he had left Bones’ phaser which would have been conveniently in reach had Jim not had his arms tied up. 

Now it was just taunting him.

“Oh! I almost forgot, I got you a gag. Silly me, we don’t want anyone hearing you and coming running do we? I mean the walls are soundproof but I don’t want to take that chance.” He crowed suddenly, he leant over Jim and rustled around in his bag for a minute or two. “There they are! I got you two actually. One to hold your mouth open nice and wide, you know just in case I wanna use it and one to layer over that so no one hears you.” 

Frank hummed to himself as he forced Jim’s jaw open and stuffed an o-ring gag with a ball placed in the middle in behind his teeth. “Technically it’s an o-ring gag with a removable ball, so it’s only one gag but I’m gonna consider it two. I don’t think you’ll disagree?” He made a show of pretending to listen for Jim’s disagreement as if he hadn’t stunned him and stuffed a gag in his mouth. 

“Just like I thought. You know Jimmy, let me tell you I’ve had a stressful day. I think I’m gonna take a load off and just watch some tv.” Frank cooed at him and Jim could feel one of his hands gently stroking his buttocks through his boxers. “Oh! Would you look at that, the six o’clock news is on. Let’s watch it together, It’ll be just like old times!” He said cheerfully and ruffled Jim’s hair. 

“Like when you used to get home from school and I would stuff you full of that vibrating dildo with the different textured studs on the sides. Oh, you loved that one didn’t you? You would squirm and squeal for hours with that one in you. Boy, was I glad we didn’t have any close neighbors.”

Jim couldn’t do anything but sit there and listen to the newscaster talk about the latest celebrity fuck up. He could see Bones’ phaser just one the other side of the armrest but he knew that even if he somehow managed to get to it he couldn’t get him arms untied quickly enough that Frank couldn’t get to him. 

He moaned softly into his gags as he went limp against Frank’s lap, there was no point in even trying to struggle until the stun charge he had been hit with wore off completely. 

And it would be a while before that happened.

* * *

It turned out that he had to lay through nearly an hour and a half of news nonsense and Frank’s intermittent laughter before he started to regain some movement. Though as soon as he could he started to wiggle in place, hoping to either dislodge the ropes or wiggle his way off of Frank’s lap at least. But instead Frank just nonchalantly told him to stop and when he didn’t Frank quickly yanked his boxers down to his knees and gave his ass a few harsh smacks. 

“You know Jimmy, I’m starting to think that all your struggling is a bit irritating.” Frank sighed. “You see, I’m trying to keep updated on all the current events going on and you keep distracting me.” 

Frank breathed in deep. “So. If you don’t stop struggling I’m going to _have_ to spank you and I don’t think either of us wants that.” Frank paused for a few seconds and then started chuckling. “Well… I might want it. Oh, who am I kidding, we both know I want it.” 

Jim made a muffled statement that came out more as a whine into his gag and laid still against the hard muscles of Frank’s thighs. 

“Oh? You don’t want to be spanked? How ‘bout we make a deal. You sit still for at least five minutes and I’ll give you a reward. You struggle and I’ll paint that tender backside of yours a nice cherry red. That fair?”

Jim nodded hurriedly but otherwise remained quiet and still. 

Five or so odd minutes later, Frank had taken to rubbing Jim’s ass lightly and every so often his hand would travel up and play with the ropes that were restraining Jim’s arms. “Well, Jimmy I think it’s time you got your reward. After all I did say you would get one and we’ll be leaving soon so I might not get another chance to give it to you till later.” 

With a smile Frank leant back over Jim again and reached into the duffle bag. Jim couldn’t see what he pulled out but he heard the telltale click of a lube bottle opening and he immediately started struggling again. 

“Shh. I know you’re excited for your reward but you can’t be struggling.” Frank said in what was supposed to be a soothing voice while he coated one of his fingers in the slippery liquid. 

He planted an elbow firmly on the small of Jim’s back to keep him held down and also used that hand to hold Jim’s cheeks apart. His first finger slipped in nearly to the last knuckle with nothing more than a whimper from Jim. 

“I’ll try and drag this out as long as possible for you, but we are on a bit of a schedule.” 

Frank spent a ridiculous amount of time just sliding his index finger in and out of Jim’s hole, every once in awhile he would give it a twist or nudge the tip against Jim’s prostate. The second finger drew a small squeak from Jim’s lips as Frank kept them pressed firmly against his prostate and instead of pistoning them in and out, he used the tips to just rub up and down across his prostate. 

Jim squeezed his eyes shut and thanked god or whoever might be out there listening that at least his body thought the horror of what his brain was going through was enough to keep him from getting an erection. 

But he couldn’t stop his cheeks from flushing a bright scarlet red when a third finger was added and it drew a high whine from his throat. “I guess three really was the lucky number huh, Baby? You liked that one didn’t you?” Frank cooed softly in Jim’s ear as he started ramming the tips of his fingers into Jim’s prostate and _that_ definitely had his cock a bit interested. 

Suddenly Frank’s fingers stilled inside of him. “Well, would you look at the time! It’s almost 8 o’clock! We have to get started packing up or else we won’t be able to keep our schedule.” 

Frank pulled his fingers out and wiped them on the couch cushion then he shimmied out from under Jim’s legs. He reached into the duffel bag again but this time he pulled out a small pill bottle and a bottle of alcohol. 

He removed the ball part of the gag and pulled Jim up until his back was resting against Frank’s chest. Frank had the pills in one hand and the opened bottle of alcohol sitting against his leg. He used one hand to hold Jim’s head back underneath his chin. “Alright, Baby. It’s time to take your medicine!” Frank crooned mockingly at him. 

He forced the pills into Jim’s mouth, not that he had a terribly hard time considering Jim’s mouth was held open, and then followed it with what was probably two or three shots worth of alcohol.

“That’s it, Jimmy. Swallow it.” Frank said as he quickly unbuckled the gag and clamped Jim’s mouth shut with his hands on either side of his head so he couldn’t spit the liquid or the pills out. He waited a few minutes till he was sure Jim’s had swallowed everything then he let go and rubbed one hand soothingly up and down Jim’s throat.

“Don’t worry Jimmy. It’ll take about fifteen minutes for those sleeping pills to work but then you’ll be out like a light. I don’t want you to get bored while we’re on our way. Bored minds always find some kind of trouble.” 

Frank rubbed a hand against his bare legs as he pulled his boxers the rest of the way back up onto his butt and once again pulled him to lay flat on his stomach against the couch. “Now we gotta get you all packed up and ready to go.” 

Frank pulled more rope out of his bag and quickly tied one coil around the top of his knees and another around the bottom of his knees then tied them both off tightly. He grabbed a third coil of rope and tied it in a cuff around his left ankle before looping it over the top of his thigh and tightening it so that his ankle was forced to rest against the curve of his ass. 

He repeated the process with the other ankle. Finally he grabbed more rope and tied it around Jim’s knees, he left the tail end of the rope hang over the edge of the couch as he reached back into the duffle bag to grab one more thing. 

“Look at what I got ya’ Jimmy. I think it’ll match those pretty little eyes of yours.” Frank said with a chuckle as he held up a nearly neon blue dog collar. Embroidered across the front was the name _‘Jimmy’_.

He lifted Jim’s head up and gingerly reached around his neck to buckle the collar in place. He tightened it until it fit snugly but wasn’t tight enough to choke Jim. “Don’t you just look so pretty with your collar on and your body all trussed up.” 

Frank grabbed the tail end of the rope he had tied to Jim’s knees and threaded it through the metal ring at the base of the collar. He pulled on the rope until it pulled Jim’s knees almost to his chin, so that he had Jim forcefully curled up in the fetal position with his arms tied tightly behind his back. He looped the rope back through the coils around Jim’s knees and the metal ring several times before tying another tight knot to keep him folded up. 

Jim whined low in the the back of his throat, his breath slightly labored as the sleeping pills and alcohol finally started to flood his system. He shifted slightly against the ropes binding him but eventually fell still and silent when the movement proved to much for his drug fatigued muscles. 

Frank ran a hand through Jim’s hair petting his head softly when Jim’s eyes started to lull shut only to snap back open a few seconds later. “Part of me wants to snap a picture of you and send it to your doctor and your half-breed first officer, but that’d just end the fun too quickly, huh? As it is they probably won't notice you're missing until around 9 tomorrow morning and that is more than enough time for me to get you where I want you.” 

Frank stood up and pulled the large rolling luggage bag over to the edge of the couch. He laid it down flat and unzipped it all the way, the inside was lined with soft silk fabric covering a cushioned interior. “You know, I had to pay a pretty credit to get this lined with cushioning and silk.” Frank sighed. “Well, the things I do to make you comfortable.” 

Frank pushed and pulled Jim until he was lying on his back with his arms underneath him. Then Frank picked Jim up and laid him inside the suitcase, it took a bit of maneuvering but he managed to get Jim to lay on his side. Jim fit nicely into the suitcase, mostly because he was curled up in a tight ball. 

Jim whimpered and sluggishly tried to shake his head and dislodge the gags still in his mouth. 

“Don’t worry, Jimmy. I made sure the guy who did the interior put a pocket in so that I could put a small canister of oxygen and a bio-mask in there for you. I wouldn’t want you to suffocate after all the trouble I went through to get you.” Frank pulled the bio-mask out and hooked the strap around the back of Jim’s head, he attached it to the back of his gag as well to make sure it didn’t get knocked off. “There we go. Now go ahead to sleep, Jimmy. I’ll take you out once we get into the hover car and have driven far enough away from San Francisco that no one will question me randomly pulling over.” 

Frank petted Jim’s head one last time before turning on the oxygen and zipping the suitcase closed. 

The last thing Jim heard before he finally fell asleep was the sound of footsteps and the feeling of being rolled across tile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading as well as giving kudos, comments and bookmarks! I love each and every one of you!
> 
> Jim gets the first gift - First Day (Chap 2)  
> Jim sees the Stalker - Second Day (Chap 3)  
> Jim, Spock and Pike get lunch and talk about the stalker - Second Day (Chap 3)  
> Jim gets accosted by Locke - Second Day (Chap 3)  
> Jim Finds the Comm w/ Frank's message. - Second Day (Chap 3) 1700 (5:00Pm)  
> Jim should have called Bones - Second Day (Chap 4) 1755 (5:55Pm)
> 
> Events start to happen juxtaposed to each other
> 
> Bones get woken by Spock - Third Morning (Chap 4) 0935 (9:35Am)  
> Joanna gets kidnapped - Third Morning (Chap 4) 0900 (9:00Am)  
> Bones gets on shuttle to San Fran - Third Morning (Chap 4) 0945 (9:45Am)  
> Bones Arrives at San Fran - Third Morning (Chap 4) 1145 (11:45Am)  
> Jim get tied up and forced to watch the news - Second Afternoon (Chap 5) 1800 (6:00Pm)  
> Frank leaves the Apartment w/ Jim - Second Night (Chap 5) 2000 (8:00Pm)


	6. To Mosley's Lane We Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank takes Jim on an adventure. It's not a good adventure and it sure as hell isn't a safe one, but then again none of the best adventures were ever really safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back with Frank and Jim again! This is a pretty brutal chapter so be fore warned. Jim has a _long_ way to go before he gets any relief. 
> 
> Next chapter we will be back with Bones, Spock and Pike!
> 
> I hope you guys like this chapter and hopefully it makes you hate Frank even more, cause that's what I'm aiming to do.

“Jimmy. Jimmy, come on, it’s time to wake up.” 

Jim groaned softly, struggling to open his eyes against the heavy weight of drugged up muscles. Frank shook him hard two or three more times before he finally managed to peel open his eyelids. 

“Atta boy Jimmy.” 

Frank grabbed his shoulder and hoisted him upwards onto the seat of a hover car. Jim was pulled up against his chest and his heavy head lulled over onto his shoulder. “You’re still sleepy, aren’t ya? Well I’ve got some water here for you to drink if you want it.” Frank was running one hand up and down his chest, stroking along where ropes had begun to dig vibrant red lines into his skin. 

Jim found he could do nothing more than whine and moan pathetically through the gag. “I might’ve given you to many sleeping pills, but you slept through the trip to the hardware store and the whole time you were in your case.” Frank said conversationally while he rummaged around in a brown paper bag, the logo on the side allowing Jim to realize that it was full of whatever Frank had bought from the hardware store. 

He pulled out a bottle of water and set it against the edge of his leg, he took the time to remove the ball part of Jim’s gag and tilted his head back. He grabbed the water bottle and slowly started to trickle a small stream of water into Jim’s mouth. Jim was able to swallow a few gulps of the water before Frank took the bottle away and sat it down in the cup holder’s in the front seat. 

“Alright, we’ve still got about a ten minute drive before we get where we need to be. And I have to be somewhere by 9 tomorrow morning so I’ll be leaving you there and I’ll come back for you around 11 tomorrow.” Frank patted him on the head and ruffled his hair before sliding out of the seat. 

He grabbed Jim’s shoulder and the back of his legs and pushed him down onto the floor of the van. Jim whimpered as he hit the floor and his back slammed into the back of the passengers seat. Frank pulled out two more sets of ropes and used one to attach the ropes restraining his hands to the bottom of the passengers seat. The he wrapped the other rope around his ankles and back before attaching it to the middle of the back seat, effectively trapping Jim between the seats and making it so that he could barely even rock back and forth. 

Frank put the ball gag back in his mouth, then he pulled a blue plastic tarp over top of him and tucked it around his body so that he wouldn’t be visible if anyone happened to look in the windows. Frank turned and slammed the van door shut behind him. Jim couldn’t see him but he could hear his footsteps as he traveled around the front of the car and got into the driver's seat. 

He took a minute or two fiddling with the controls in the car, he turned the music up to an almost deafening volume and then started the car and drove off. 

Jim whined to himself as the fast and loud techno beats drove themselves into his head, he could practically feel the beats from his laying position on the floor. He busied himself with counting in his head. He was hoping that if he kept count he might be able to find his way back to the hardware store or some other place and be able to get help if he got untied while he was alone wherever Frank was taking him. 

He counted to sixty almost 6 times before the car slowly ground to a halt. When Frank turned the music down he realized that they hadn’t stopped because they had reached their destination. 

He could hear the slow whooping of a police siren in the distance. 

Now that he heard the siren, his brain registered the bright red and blue lights dancing across the ceiling of the van. Vaguely he heard Frank rustling around in the front of the car followed by the sound of a phaser powering up. 

“Oh would you look at this Jimmy, this cop is a young one. Hell, he might even be a younger than you. Now keeping that in mind, if you make any kind of noise or do anything to let him know you’re here. I will not hesitate to kill him.” Frank said lowly under his breath. 

Jim held his breath when he heard footsteps walk up alongside the car. He heard the police officer ask Frank if he knew why he pulled him over, to which Frank replied no. All Jim could do was listen as the officer told Frank he had ran through a red light. He had barely managed to contain his flinch when the kid asked for Frank's License and registration. 

“Just letting you know, this is my in-laws van, so that's why my name isn’t on the registration.” Frank chuckled good naturedly. 

Jim heard the officer chuckle in return. “And your driver’s license? I need to see that too, sir.” 

The sound of rustling reached Jim’s ears and he slowly released the breath he was holding when Frank started talking again. “You know, I left my Mother-in-laws place in a hurry I must’ve forgot my wallet the-”

“Sir, what’s that in the backseat?” A bright light shone in through the window, lighting up the tarp and the seat behind it. 

Frank sighed dramatically and Jim heard a loud smack followed by a yelp. “I really hate to do this but I can’t leave any witnesses.” The sound of a phaser discharging filled the air and a thump sounded from the side of the car. 

Judging by the sounds coming from the front of the car, Frank was climbing over the passenger's seat and out the passenger side door. Jim counted to 60 seven times and then Frank was yanking open the door next to him, he reached in and grabbed the already opened bottle of water from the cup holders up front. “Don’t worry Jimmy, I just need to wash away some evidence and then we’ll be back on the road in a minute or two.” 

Frank slammed the door shut again and a minute or two later he was climbing back in the driver's seat and starting up the car. “Well, this is unfortunate. The red light I blew has a camera on it that takes a picture of the license plate. Which means we are going to need a new car.” Frank growled and violently smacked his hands against the steering wheel. “We’ll just have to drive around till we find something suitable.” He huffed.

They drove around for what Jim thought was about ten minutes, then Frank pulled over on the side of the road and sat for another minute or two. All of a sudden he was getting out of the car in a hurry and Jim could hear his footsteps pounding on the pavement until they faded away. 

Jim counted the minutes again until he heard Frank’s footsteps returning and rapidly coming up to the car. The door was pulled open. “You won’t guess the jackpot I just hit Jimmy. A woman with a minivan that lives about five minutes down the road.” Frank reached in and quickly untied the restraints keep Jim in place, though he left them tied to Jim’s restrains, and wrapped the tarp completely around his body. 

He grabbed the duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder before leaning back over and lifting Jim up into his arms. He turned and kicked the door shut behind him, he jogged a minute or two with Jim in his arms until they came upon a dark blue mini-van parked out in an abandoned parking lot. “She was at a late night convenience store picking up milk, she’s a nurse at some local hospital, didn’t even get the chance to look at me before she was stunned.” 

Frank set him down on the floor of the car, in the same position he had been in in the first car, except this time he wasn’t facing the door and instead got a good view of the woman Frank had stolen the car from. 

She was a pretty lady, she looked to be mid to late twenties with short blonde hair and scared, wide _blue_ eyes. She wasn’t able to move because of the stun charge but her eyes were practically screaming at him to help her. Frank had already duct taped her hands, ankles and mouth so she wouldn’t be able to help him get untied and Frank had already tied him to the passenger seat again so he couldn’t help untie her even if he wanted to. 

“Jimmy, it’s only 12:30 and we don’t have to be where we’re heading until 1:30 at the latest, so I think we still have some time to have fun with, uh - ” Frank pulled out what looked like a driver’s license from his pocket. “Katie Bensler.” 

Jim gave a muffled shout and shook his head back and forth, not even wanting to contemplate what Frank would consider ‘fun’, but Frank just laughed at him and threw the door shut behind him. 

This drive was much shorter than the last and almost as soon as the van was stopped Frank got out and grabbed the women. He returned a few minutes later and carried Jim into a house that was almost completely secluded. The only house near it was close to half a mile away if Jim’s depth perception was to be believed. 

Which meant even if either of them screamed no one would hear it.

Frank took him into a bedroom near the back of the house and laid him out on the bed. Katie was already tied to the bed, her hands duct taped to the iron bed frame above her head while her feet were left untied. Frank untied the rope keeping his knees attached to his collar and instead pulled it down to attach it to one of the foot posts on the bed, he pulled out another rope and hooked it through the ropes keeping his arms behind his back as well as through the back of the collar. He knotted the tail end to the iron bed frame above Jim’s head. 

Frank released a long sigh. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been with a woman.” He said as he ran his fingers up along Katie’s thigh. Suddenly he took a hold of the hem of her skirt and ripped it all the way up to the waistband. Katie squealed in fright from beneath her gag and Jim had to squeeze his eyes shut and turn his head away. 

“Oh...she’s a pretty one.” The sound of ripping fabric and buttons skittering across the floor filled the air along with muffled whimpers and squeaks as Frank fondled the woman next to him. 

Jim heard footsteps coming to his side of the bed and then Frank was gripping his chin and forcing him to face him. “C’mon Jimmy, this isn’t going to be any fun if you aren’t watching.” He was forced to turn his head back towards Katie. 

She was staring at him with such a scared look on her face, it broke his heart to know that there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her. Hell, he couldn’t even help himself out of this hell, let alone trying to carry someone else through it. 

Her blue eyes were shining with tears, but she kept them locked on Jim’s when Frank tore her panties and her bra off her body. She whimpered as he pulled his cock out of his pants, not even taking the time to get his pants or boxers off and pulled her legs up over his shoulders. He took a few seconds to bite and suck at the pale skin of her inner thighs, teasing her as she sobbed. 

Katie’s whimper turned into a scream at the same time that Jim closed his eyes and turned his head back the other way again and while Jim knew Frank had thrust into her without any prep or lube, he couldn’t bring himself to watch Frank rape her. Even if forcing himself to watch the brutalization might have given Katie even an inkling of camaraderie or support. 

Jim didn’t know how long Frank had spent raping Katie but he knew that eventually her screams and cries faded down to nothing more than muffled sobs. He could feel the sting of tears behind his eyelids and the hot wetness of them sliding down his cheeks while he listened to the woman's voice fade out to barely anything. 

He knew what it felt like to be raped by Frank, he even knew what it felt like to be brutally raped by him without any kind of prep or anything but blood from torn tissues to slick the way. 

“What’s wrong Jimmy?” He heard Frank ask, a rough hand coming to rest on his cheek, wiping away the salty tears that had dried in trails down his face. “Are you upset that Katie and I had all the fun and left you out?” 

“Well don’t worry. I’ll give you a treat.” Frank grabbed his chin again, this time to hold his head still so that he could pull the ball part of his gag out. 

It was then that Jim noticed Frank still had his blood coated cock out and it was still hard. Realizing what Frank was planning to do he tried valiantly to shake Frank’s hand off his head or close his mouth but the effort was wasted. 

Frank shushed him mockingly, feeding the head of his cock through the metal ring and into Jim’s mouth. Jim gagged as the metallic tinge of iron flooded over his tongue. He whined, the feeling of Frank’s cock knocking against the back of his throat along with the tangy taste of blood making him want to throw up. 

“Oh, I missed your mouth, baby.” Frank groaned loudly above Jim, his hips moving in long hard strokes back and forth into Jim’s mouth. 

Frank’s cock slid down into his throat cutting off his air flow. His throat convulsed around the thick intrusion, the gag making it impossible to stop Frank from doing what he wanted, from taking what he wanted. 

Frank grabbed him the the strap of the gag and started thrusting violently into his mouth. His hips stuttered sporadically and his calloused hand forcefully shoved Jim’s face into the thicket of wiry curls at the base of his cock. 

Suddenly Jim’s throat was coated in a thick bitter liquid as Frank came with a loud shout that slowly faded out into a moan along with the minute thrusts of his pelvis. 

Jim choked and when Frank pulled out he gagged, the cum in his mouth bubbling up out of his throat along with bile. He gulped down several harsh breaths, the action causing him to choke and vomit again as the taste and texture refilled his mouth. 

“Damnit it, Jimmy. Did you forget how to swallow since I last had you?” Frank hissed irritably. He grabbed a water bottle and poured it down his throat, a sharp laugh sounded through the air when he sputtered and gasped as the water went down his windpipe instead of his esophagus. He retched, the water obstructing his airway, stopping him from taking the breaths that his lungs were so desperately crying out for. 

“I give you a gift and you throw it back up? At least you didn’t get it all over yourself.” Hands on his hips, a mocking smirk on his face, Frank was standing next to the bed staring at Jim. “Well we better be on our way, Jimmy. It’s unfortunate that Katie can’t come with us.” 

Frank shoved his cock back in pants and zippered them up before turning around and grabbing his phaser. Katie and Jim both started whimpering horribly muffled pleas at him from behind their gags, trying to stop what they both already knew was inevitable. Katie stared into Jim’s eyes, there were big tears running down her face but something in her eyes was haunted, it was like something out of those old 21st century style horror movies. She was scared but at the same time she looked...almost _relieved_ that it was about to be over. 

Jim knew that feeling. The feeling that you don’t know if you’re ever going to be able to recover from what had just happened to you. It was a feeling where for at least a few minutes, you felt like maybe death was preferable, because in your mind there was no coming back from what you just suffered. You didn’t know if you could bounce back from this, you didn’t know if you could somehow survive and live your life after this kind of trauma. 

Jim recognized that look in her eyes, hell he had seen it in the mirror staring back at him from his own face enough times to be able to identify it immediately. 

The bright red beam of a phaser set to kill bathed the room in crimson light for a few seconds and then Katie wasn’t crying anymore and the look in her eyes was gone. Replaced by the blank stare of death. 

Jim just looked away and sobbed. He didn’t even really notice when Frank untied him from the bed or when he put him in Katie’s car and tied him back up to the passenger's seat. He just laid there in shock, barely even able to to remember to breathe as he thought back to the look on Katie’s face shortly before she died. 

His mind wandered, trying to do anything it could to get his mind off of the situation that he had somehow managed to get into. It made his heart ache to admit it but part of him knew that the look on Katie’s face was most likely mirrored on his own face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, leaving comments, bookmarking this fic and giving me kudos. These things all feed my writing capabilities. As always I try to reply to comments but a lot of the times I can't reply without giving something from the plot away cause you guys are so good at guessing and are really involved with trying to figure out whats going to happen next. (Which is something I love about the people who comment on this story as well as ASHS, the fact that you guys like the story enough to want to look for clues and try and figure out whats going to happen, is the highlight of my day)
> 
> Jim gets the first gift - First Day (Chap 2)  
> Jim sees the Stalker - Second Day (Chap 3)  
> Jim, Spock and Pike get lunch and talk about the stalker - Second Day (Chap 3)  
> Jim gets accosted by Locke - Second Day (Chap 3)  
> Jim Finds the Comm w/ Frank's message. - Second Day (Chap 3) 1700 (5:00Pm)  
> Jim should have called Bones - Second Day (Chap 4) 1755 (5:55Pm)
> 
> Events start to happen juxtaposed to each other
> 
> Bones get woken by Spock - Third Morning (Chap 4) 0935 (9:35Am)  
> Joanna gets kidnapped - Third Morning (Chap 4) 0900 (9:00Am)  
> Bones gets on shuttle to San Fran - Third Morning (Chap 4) 0945 (9:45Am)  
> Bones Arrives at San Fran - Third Morning (Chap 4) 1145 (11:45Am)  
> Jim get tied up and forced to watch the news - Second Afternoon (Chap 5) 1800 (6:00Pm)  
> Frank leaves the Apartment w/ Jim - Second Night (Chap 5) 2000 (8:00Pm)  
> Jim gets woken up - Second Night (Chap 6) 2400 (1200Am)   
> Frank steals a car - Second Night (chap 6) 2430 (12:30Am)  
> Frank Rapes Katie - Second night (Chap 6) 2450 (12:50Am)


	7. Locke and a Key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spock, Leonard and Pike continue to investigate Jim's kidnapping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back with Leonard and Spock! I liked writing this chapter, it honestly gave me a break from the horror that is Frank. 
> 
> In other news Chapter 8 might be a few days because I have to decide whether or not I want to rewrite it. Some of you have expressed the fact that this story might be a bit to graphic and horrifying for you to keep reading and I'm not sure if I'm going to continue as I originally planned to or if I'm going to try and tone down the violence.

Leonard sighed as he dropped down into the chair, there were still a few StarFleet security officers ducking in and out of the apartment but for the most part everyone had cleared out now that the crime scene unit had finished with checking and cataloging the inside of the apartment. 

Spock was currently in the formal living room scrolling through the main comm unit on the wall to see if maybe Frank had screwed up and called someone from inside the apartment while he was with Jim because as of right now they had _nothing_ to go on besides the videos showing Frank leaving the apartment complex and him standing in the school talking to the receptionist before he had taken Joanna. 

They had yet to see either Jim or Joanna on either security camera’s. 

But they were still waiting on a few more video feeds to make it their way, mainly the parking lot security cams from both the apartment complex and the school. He wasn’t quite sure if they were going to be able to get anything off of either videos but it was worth a shot. At the very least seeing the videos from the parking lots might show they whether or not Jim and Joanna had been drugged or severely injured when he stuffed them into the car. 

It might also show if he had taken Jim to the school with him or stashed him someplace else while he went and got Joanna. Leonard knew that either option was a very real possibility. If he had taken Jim with him it would have made it a hell of a lot easier to convince Joanna to go with him. But if he had taken Jim with him it might have also posed a bigger threat as Jim would have had more incentive to escape to try and protect Joanna. There was no doubt in Leonard’s mind that if Jim saw any opportunity to get his daughter to safety he would, no matter what the cost.

Just thinking about either of his babies in the hands of that maniac was enough to make Leonard’s skin crawl and his blood boil. 

Jim had been through horrible things in his life, hell a lot of it had been inflicted by Frank in the first place, and the last thing he needed was to be forced to relive it on top of the new trauma that Frank was no doubt inflicting on him. At first Leonard was hesitant to admit it but ever since that day on the shuttle to San Francisco Jim had practically been Leonard’s whole life and he was pretty much the only reason that he even got to talk to Joanna let alone actually see her and physically hold her. 

Once they had gotten back from that whole mess with the Narada, Jim had called in a couple favors and managed to get Pike to lean on Jocelyn so that he would be allowed to see his own kid. That honestly had been the event that had made Leonard realise what a big part Jim had come to fill in his life. It made his heart ache and his throat clench when he thought about what Frank could be doing to them. 

“Working yourself into a frenzy over what may be happening is not a logical course of action, Doctor.” 

Leonard jumped, startled by the sudden sound of Spock’s baritone voice filling the air and contrary to what Spock had just said, Leonard could hear the soft waver in his voice, which in Leonard’s mind meant that Spock had probably been dwelling on the same thoughts that he had. 

“Did you find anything on the comm unit?” 

Spock shook his head. “Negative. He nor Jim made any kind of calls or sent any messages shortly before or after 2000 hours.” 

Leonard frowned and sat up a bit. “Did you check before that?” 

“No. As Jim’s door was last opened at 2000 hours it is logical to assume that had Jim had the chance he would have sent out an alert shortly before or after he was kidnapped.” 

“What if he wasn’t kidnapped at 2000 hours?” Leonard asked softly, a look of concentration shadowing his face.

“May I inquire as to what you mean?” 

“When you called me this morning you asked if Jim had commed me at a very specific time, uh, you said 1755, right?” 

Spock nodded. “Yes, I last saw Jim at 1650 hours on the quad, when we parted ways he stated that he intended to arrive back at his quarters, comm you and then retire for the night. I added approximately and hour and five minutes to the estimated time to account for the travel from the quad to the apartment complex as well as the estimated time it would take for Jim to settle in and call you.” 

Leonard bit his lips, thinking hard for a few seconds before standing up and walking over to Spock. “He never managed to call me, maybe Frank was already in the apartment. Or he could have followed Jim in when he returned from seeing you.” Leonard gestured wildly. “Hell for all we know the reason we didn’t see Jim on the security camera in the lobby is because Frank could have taken him out a hell of a lot earlier than 2000 hours and then once he had him stashed in a secure locate he could have come back for his stuff.” 

“You believe that Frank has had Jim for longer than the 14 hours we originally presumed?” 

He ran a hand over the stubble that was growing on his chin. His mind was working in overdrive. “Yeah I do. Which means that we need to go over every minute of security footage for yesterday.” 

Spock looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Leonard knew that it was a gesture that conveyed confusion. “I do not see the logic in going back over the security tapes as they only have a view of the lobby and would not give us any more information.” 

“Look, if we can find him on the security camera, even if it’s just from the camera in the lobby we would at least know when he came and went. Maybe we could get a glimpse of Jim whenever he took him out of the apartment. Hell if we see Jim and then get a shot of Frank coming back to get his stuff we can use the time codes to figure out a general area of where he could have driven to and still got back in the time frame to get his stuff.” Leonard said enthusiastically. “If we have a general area we might be able to find a place where Jim was put and maybe there will be more evidence as to what Frank’s endgame is! What’s the worst that could happen by taking a look at the tapes?” 

“I will alert Admiral Pike that we wish to receive the security tapes for the apartment complex for all of yesterday.” Spock murmured softly, bringing the PADD in his hand upwards so that he could begin drafting a message to Admiral Pike. “I believe once the others arrive from their various shoreleave locations they will be more than willing to assist us in going over the footage of yesterday, it would be more efficient to have multiple people looking over the footage as we will be able to ‘divide and conquer’ as I believe the phrase goes.” 

 

“Yeah, that’ll be a good idea. How long do you think it will be before we get the videos? The quicker we get information the better.”

“I’m sure the admiral will have them send us the video quickly.”

Leonard looked up at him from where he had idly begun to flick through the messages on his comm unit, going through the last few messages Jim had managed to send to him. “Speaking of Pike, where the hell has he gone off to? Last time I saw him was a few hours ago, when he was talking to some of the ensigns.” 

“I’ve been following up on some leads.” Pike abruptly interrupted as he limped through the threshold of the apartment. 

Leonard perked up. “You have some leads? Why the hell didn’t you tell me and Spock, we could have been helping you chase them down!” He practically bowled Pike over trying to encourage him to move him further into the apartment, towards the stools that were circled around the countertop. 

Pike sent a somewhat irritated somewhat knowing glance Leonard’s way. “I didn’t tell you because it was less of a lead and more of a hunch and I figured it’d be better not to get your hopes up if nothing panned out.” 

Pike sat down on a stool at the countertop in the kitchen, he nodded to Leonard and Spock, both of them quickly taking seats across from him and waiting to hear what he had found. “I’m not sure if you are aware of this Leonard, but after the fiasco with the Delvian’s, Spock and I managed to get Frank sent away to a penal colony...for the things he did to Jim as a child.” Pike quickly held up a hand, motioning for Leonard to hold on when he saw the outraged look on Leonard’s face. “We collected evidence and managed to get one of the _doctors_ that had helped Frank to testify against him, that way Jim wouldn’t have to be involved in the courts.”

“Why the hell would you not tell us about that? If we had known he had been sent to jail we could have known that he might have held a grudge!” 

Pike sighed. “I didn’t want Jim to have to deal with anything. Hell, he was still recovering from what happened with the Delvian’s.” He said dejectedly. “And besides that, we only managed to gather evidence on Frank and the one doctor, so we have no idea whether or not there were other associates that Frank had and we didn’t want to drag Jim through the mud to find them.” 

Leonard abruptly stood up, he narrowly avoided knocking the stool to the ground as he started pacing around the small kitchen. “What does this have to do with the leads you found?”

“I was getting to that. Obviously someone had to help him escape the penal colony, I wasn’t sure who, but Admiral Barnett has a few friends up at that particular penal colony and after I told him what kind of guy Frank is and that he not only has Jim but your daughter as well, he got me in contact with them. They sent me Frank’s visitors logs, his communications, everything. He broke out four weeks ago and it took a two and a half week trip just to get here but I couldn't find any evidence or logs of a federation vessel being anywhere near the penal colony.” 

“Did you figure out who helped him or not?” Leonard demanded. 

Leonard watched Pike while he waited for an answer, the usually calm and collected older man was nearly shaking with anger that Leonard could see swimming in his eyes. “When he was taken away I made damn sure that the penal colony knew to alert me if anything changed with his status. Four weeks ago, unbeknownst to me, the warden sent a message stating that Frank had escaped but since I was otherwise occupied and didn’t respond in time he instead relayed it to another Admiral, who instead of telling me, decided to make the message disappear.” 

“Admiral Locke.” Spock suddenly cut in. “Admiral Locke was the one who received the message from the penal colony and did not inform you. Wasn’t he?” 

“Yes. Locke was the one the warden contacted. Apparently he changed the contact information at the penal colony to show that any messages about Frank were to be sent to him if I didn’t respond in an hour or two. It also happens that I was in a meeting that Admiral Locke scheduled and then had to bail out of due to a ‘scheduling conflict’. He was in the meeting for all of five minutes before he left.” 

“That Bastard! I knew he was up to no good. I told Jim to stay away from him.” Leonard threw himself back onto the stool and dropped his head in his hands. He had known in his gut that something was up with Admiral Locke and instead of making sure something was done he had left Jim alone with someone who was helping Frank. Someone who had allowed Jim to fall back into that monsters grubby little paws. He should have done something, he should have insisted that he stay at the apartment with Jim instead of heading to Georgia without him. 

Hell, he had been out shopping and complaining about how long it was taking his mother and aunt to find something they wanted to wear when Jim had been taken. He had been sitting on his damn ass while Jim was probably being tortured and god only knows what else. 

“I held off on going to confront Locke. I thought the two of you might want to come with me, maybe we can get him to see reason and give up what he might know of Frank’s plan.” Pike said with a downright dangerous look on his face. If Leonard wasn’t so sure the look was probably mirrored on his own face he might actually be a little bit frightened of it. Even Spock’s eyes had a dangerous glean lurking in those brown depths. 

“Who are we going to make see reason?” 

All three of their heads whipped around towards the entryway of the apartment. Standing in the door was Uhura and Sulu, behind them were Scotty and Chekov, all of them looked like they were getting ready to head off for war. Leonard didn’t think he had ever seen every member of the senior bridge crew look so stern and solemn. 

“Admiral Locke. Admiral Pike has found sufficient evidence that links him to Frank’s escape from incarceration.” 

Uhura’s face practically morphed with the amount of barely concealed rage that crossed over her sharp features. “That jackass had something to do with this? I told Jim he was bad news! Mara baada ya yeye inatuambia ambapo Jim ni, mimi itabidi kukatwa jogoo wake na mkupuo kwenye koo yake!” Leonard had no idea what she was hissing but he sure as hell knew it wasn’t anything nice. 

“Well what are we bloody waitin’ for, let’s go interrogate the slimy prick!”

* * *

It was only about a fifteen minute walk from the apartment complex to the Admiral’s office, but the bridge crew had still somehow managed to cut the trip down to a measly seven minute journey. The first minute or two had been spent catching the crew and Pike up with the fact that Leonard believed that Frank had been in the apartment long before 2000 hours and that they needed to go back over the security camera footage for earlier in the day and see if they found any more evidence. 

They all walked in a group through the office building, moving like one big cohesive storm cloud, and people practically dove across the halls trying to keep from getting in their way. It was a powerful feeling but at the same time in all of their minds their anger was vastly overshadowed by the worry for their Captain. On the outside though, even Chekov looked like a force to be reckoned with, as an unnaturally stony look had settled on the Russian’s face. 

Once they had arrived at Locke’s office it was very clear that they were impatient as Locke’s secretary let them pass her desk without so much as asking what they needed him for, though she did say that she hadn’t seen him come in yet that morning so it was possible that he hadn’t woken up yet. Pike pressed the call button two times before finally just giving up and punching in his Admiral’s override, it wouldn’t have worked if Locke had set his office to show that he was in a meeting but seconds after he finished punching in his code the door slid open in front of Pike. 

The door slid back to reveal a scene that was probably the last thing Leonard would have thought to see.

He could hear the sounds of Scotty and Chekov trying to hold back their gagging as the overwhelming stench of death filled their nostrils. He and Spock exchanged a quick look and then Spock was drawing his phaser while Leonard’s hand dropped down to the tri-corder strapped onto his belt. 

Locke was slumped on his desk chair, his head lolled back over the headrest, his body stiff and ashen gray while his one eye was clouded over and rolled upward towards the ceiling. The other eye, along with the left half of his face, was blown to smithereens, leaving behind only a patchwork of blood and stringy flesh. It had undoubtedly been caused by a phaser blast to the temple, most likely from point blank range. 

“What the fuck?” Sulu said aloud after a minute. “Who the hell killed him?”

Pike was looking at the body with a steely look on his face. “Someone who knew that he couldn’t have any loose ends that might be convinced to tell us any information they had.” 

“Okay, kidnapping a Starfleet officer’s daughter was bad, kidnapping a Starfleet Captain was worse. But _killing_ an Admiral? Does Frank really think he’s gonna get away with this?” Sulu asked, his voice exasperated. 

“I don't think this is about getting away with anything. I mean he’s already been in jail for doing what he did to Jim, he’s kidnapped two people and killed another one. He doesn’t really have anything to lose except his life and at the end of this either he’s going to die or go back to the penal colony. Either way his life is over.” Uhura said softly. She was slowly making her way across the room towards the communications unit that was embedded in Locke’s desk. 

“A crime scene unit will be here shortly along with a unit of Security personnel to secure the scene, we must refrain from touching anything and contaminating the scene until the arrive.” Spock said shortly. “If you believe you are incapable of controlling your gag reflex perhaps it is best you both wait outside. We do not want anything to contaminate the crime scene.” He said turning to look at Scotty and Chekov, who both were positively green in the face. 

Leonard watched as Spock pulled out a tri-corder of his own, which surprisingly enough was set to pick up any kind of electrical signals, he was pointing it at the walls as well as several of the book shelves and cases scattered around the room. “Spock, what are you scanning for?” 

“I am attempting to see if there are any hidden audio or video devices in the room. Locke was an admiral and thus regulations state that he was not allowed to have any audio surveillance equipment in his office, in an attempt to remove the threat of someone hacking into them and getting classified information.” 

Pike frowned as he looked over at Spock. “You think Locke set up surveillance equipment and possibly recorded any interactions with Frank?” 

“That is a possibility, yes. But there is also the possibility that if he and Frank did in fact meet, then Frank may have put the equipment in here so that he would know if Locke was about to turn him in. Perhaps at some point their plans diverged away from each other and that is what caused Frank to kill Admiral Locke.” 

Pike nodded slowly at the explanation. 

“Admiral?” Uhura called from the far end of the office near Locke’s body. She waited for Pike to give her a nod before continuing. “If it’s possible once the crime scene unit has catalogued the scene, I want to be the one to look through Locke’s files, I won’t look at any of the classified ones. I’ll just search through anything that could pertain to Jim or Frank.” 

“I’ll talk to the other admirals and see what they think of the idea. I’m sure I can convince them that you are the best candidate for the job.”

Pike looked like he was about to say something more but was interrupted as the aforementioned crime scene unit showed up as if Uhura talking about them had suddenly summoned them to the scene. The room was almost instantly flooded with a sea of Starfleet officers in Science blues who quickly ushered everyone except Pike out the door and out into the hallway. 

They were forced to pace outside and wait as the officers moved in and out in a flurry of photographs and samples, eventually a few officers pushing a stretcher carrying a body bag left the office. After they were gone, the senior crew of the enterprise sat outside the office for nearly two hours before Pike came back out to talk to them. 

“Uhura.” At the sound of Pike calling her name every single one of them turned and stared him down. “Uhura, the admirals have agreed to let you go through Locke’s computer so long as you avoid certain files, they’ve sent me a list that you can use as a reference. As for the rest of you, you can come into the office but I don’t want you causing any kind of ruckus.” 

All of them stood up and clambered into the office, Uhura strode over to the desk and immediately went to work searching through Locke’s files while the rest of them started scanning the rest of the room, looking for anything the crime techs might have overlooked or missed completely. 

Everyone was silent for a few minutes, the only noises in the room were the subtle clicking of Uhura working on the comm unit at the desk and every once in awhile someone would make some kind of noise or something would get moved around. 

“Oh, my god.” Uhura gasped out suddenly, the exclamation making everyone scramble over to her. 

“What did you find?” 

Uhura had one hand pressed over her mouth, the other laying over her heart and Leonard could see the tears building up in her eyes and he could practically hear her heart rate increasing. 

“Lieutenant Uhura, what did you find?” Pike asked again tersely. 

“Pictures a-and videos. Some messages b-between Frank and Locke.” She answered back softly. 

“Pictures of what?” Leonard demanded, reaching for the comm panel in front of him. 

Uhura just barely managed to stop him from clicking and opening one of the files that she had up on the screen. “Pictures and videos of J-Jim. Of him as a child, of Frank _doing_ things to him. God, these are horrible.” She took a shaky breath before continuing. “According to the correspondence between him and Frank, Locke found the pictures and videos of Jim online and after realizing who it was in the photos and videos he started contacting Frank. He was asking if he had anything else besides what he had already found.”

“Frank offered him more videos in return for favors within the penal colony, you know, like a lighter workload, better accommodations, that sort of thing. But eventually Frank started baiting Locke. In the messages they started talking about how Frank could convince Jim to give Locke a ‘private show’ but he would only do it if Locke helped him escape the penal colony.” 

“So that’s why Locke was helping Frank? Because he was a fucking pedophile who got off on watching child porn of Jim?” Leonard hissed in outrage, he had to stop himself from grabbing the comm unit’s screen and ripping it out of the desk to smash it to pieces once Uhura had loaded up a few of the images to show them what she had seen. 

“That’s not all.” She said breathlessly. “Apparently Frank convinced Locke that Pike was in on it.” 

Pike looked at her sharply. “What do you mean? What was he saying to Locke?”

“A few of the messages said that the reason Jim never showed up to the trials and the reason why Frank got such a light sentence instead of being sent to one of the more unsavory penal colonies was because he convinced Jim to let you use him however you wanted and in return he was given leniency.” 

Pike growled. “The only reason that asshole got such a light sentence was because we didn’t have Jim’s testimony because we didn’t want him to have to relive what Frank did to him.” 

“Admiral. No one here believes a word that Frank has or will say about you.” Spock assured him. 

Pike ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Good work Uhura. I want you to download everything you’ve found onto a secure PADD so we can present it to the Admiralty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, commenting and giving Kudos! I really appreciate it!


	8. Out of the Frying Pan and Into The Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank and Jim finally arrive at their destination. Not that it's anywhere Jim really wanted to be. 
> 
> This chapter doesn't have any rape or torture but it does have some mentions of past abuse as well as the foreshadowing of future abuse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I'm sorry that this chapter is so late. My dick of an older brother decided to blow cigarette smoke in my dogs face, a dog that has epilepsy, and my dog had quite a few seizures over the past few days.
> 
> Also I have decided that I'm not going to rewrite this story and instead I'm just going to put some warning in the summaries of each chapter to let you guys know what will happen.

Jim growled low in his throat as he rocked back and forth against the restraints keeping him tethered to the back of the passenger’s seat. Frank had been driving around for about 15 minutes since they had left Katie’s home, not that Jim could really remember the first few minutes of the car ride. He had mentally checked out for a while after he had started thinking about the look in Katie’s eyes and he knew in the back of his mind that it wasn’t good, that his brain must have been overloaded by the trauma for him to have just completely gone numb to his surroundings. 

Then Frank had turned the radio on and Jim wasn’t sure why but one of the songs brought him out of whatever place he had retreated to in his mind. It took him a few minutes to place it but finally he recognized it as one of the songs he had heard Bones sing to Joanna a couple of times when she had nightmare. Hell, Bones had sung it to _him_ once or twice when he had nightmares, primarily after the trouble with Delvia had brought bad memories back. 

He heard the radio shut off before Frank was turning around in the driver’s seat to hiss at him. “Stop your squirming, Jimmy. I know you never liked car rides but we are almost there. It’s like another minute!” 

Jim groaned out a response that was completely distorted by the gag in his mouth and Frank immediately ignored him, turning the radio back up and starting the car again. Jim felt the car go from driving on pavement to rumbling around on a gravel road and to then shifting its way across a dirt road before finally coming to a full stop. 

He tried to crane his head up far enough to try and get a look at what the landscape looked like out the window and after a few seconds of struggling he managed to see the tips of some Basswood and Oak trees surrounding the car. He knew in his mind that those trees were common in several states in the US, which of course meant that he was still in the US and Frank hadn’t tried to either take him out of the country or possibly off the planet. Being in the states meant that there was still a good chance his crew could find him if they realized he was missing soon enough. It also meant that there was a chance he could escape and get help. 

Frank slammed open the door in front of him and shot him a downright dangerous smirk. “Alrighty, Jimmy. We’re finally here, albeit a bit later than I intended but I guess you can’t really put a time limit on fun.” Frank chuckled as he once again undid the ropes restraining Jim to the back of the passenger’s seat. This time however, instead of having his duffel bag with him, all he had was a small backpack slung over his shoulder. 

Jim, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to get away yet because of the way his legs were tied up, decided that now that he was completely unencumbered by the drugs that had previously flooded his system it would be the best time to begin struggling. He wouldn’t escape but at least he would be able to tell himself he tried to do _something_ instead of just allowing Frank to take him wherever the hell he wanted. 

“Oh c’mon Jimmy, I know you're antsy but we’ve just arrived!” He growled as he gripped Jim tighter. “You know I would let you walk on your own but I think we both know that if you could use your legs, you would immediately try to escape. And I don’t want that to happen, not after all the trouble I’ve gone through to get you and set everything up.” 

Jim huffed at him and gave a muffled curse before continuing to rock back and forth as violently as he could to try and throw himself out of Frank’s arms. But that only managed to get Frank to drop him down onto the hard ground and reel his arm back to give him a harsh backhand across the face. 

“Now, why did you make me do that Jimmy? Another one of those and I might accidentally mess up that pretty face of yours.” Frank tsked as he patted the side of Jim’s face where he had struck him. He massaged the warmed skin slightly for a few seconds. “If you would just _trust_ me for once, you would realize that you are going to love where I’m taking you. Hell you might even see someone you know!”

He picked Jim back up and started walking along the road again. Now that Jim had stopped struggling, because being dropped on the hard ground had fucking hurt against the bare skin of his back and buttocks, he could see what Frank was taking him towards. Or, more accurately where Frank was taking him. 

In the distance he could see a white farmhouse that looked incredibly familiar, he knew he had seen it before and it was at the front of his mind but he just couldn’t quite place _why_ he had seen it before. Even further behind the farmhouse was at least a two story barn, a very well kept and spacious looking barn that was illuminated in a soft white glow by the lights that were inside. 

Judging by the fact that Frank seemed to be ignoring the farmhouse and the farmhouse was completely cast in darkness while the barn was illuminated, Jim could only assume that Frank was going to be taking him to the barn. Considering all the things Jim had witnessed Frank do over the past couple of hours alone, Frank had probably killed the owners of the farmhouse and planned to use the barn to house Jim while he ‘finished his preparations’. And given the utter seclusion of the house and barn, as there weren’t any other houses in sight even though they were surrounded by a field with a long sight line, it looked like a prime chance for Jim to attempt to escape while Frank was gone. 

However, his theory of Frank probably killing the owners was violently thrown out the window when the barn’s side door was thrown open when they were only about 6 or 7 feet from it. 

“Frankie! Here I was thinking you weren’t going to be coming.” 

Frank laughed and quickly set Jim down on the grass, surprisingly gently, before moving to hug the middle aged man that had come out of the barn. They hugged for a few seconds before they both pulled back, though Frank kept his hand on the man's back, giving him a few hard sounding pats on the back. “Oh c’mon Donnie. I told you I was going to be late! I may have gotten _caught up_ in some stuff on the way here.” 

Jim’s heart had kicked into overdrive as his brain finally placed why the house and land had looked familiar.

“Boy. Jimmy had gotten all grown up hasn’t he?” 

Frank reached down and plucked him up off the ground with a huge smile on his face. “Yeah he has. He’s a beauty isn’t he, Don?” Frank said. “But we should go ahead inside, as I’m sure you’ve taken a notice of, he doesn’t have any clothes on and I’d hate for him to get sick.” 

“Oh! Of course.We wouldn’t want the little guy to catch a cold! After all I do remember how bad his immune system always was.” Don laughed, turning to hold the door open behind him as he gestured wildly for Frank to follow him into the barn. “I’ve got it all setup to keep him here while you’re gone. I’ve finished the whole second floor of the barn and turned it into two ‘playroom’s’ if you will.” 

Frank nodded and trailed in after him, he carried Jim up the steps to the second floor of the barn and through a heavy old steel door that had not only a heavy duty manual lock on the outside but also what looked like a handprint scanner. Him and Don constantly talked and chatted away at each other as they walked like they were old school friends who had just happened to run into each other at a grocery store, instead of two fully grown men who had another man tied up.

Jim had to hold back a whimper as the inside of the barn came into view, on the bottom floor of course there were the normal instruments that one might find in a barn that was settled on a crop or cattle farm. But the second floor, oh, it was practically a torture chamber in Jim’s eyes. It was fully finished, with three of the walls lined with black pegboards full of different implements. Some were as innocuous as screwdrivers and hammers while others were obviously for more _devious_ things. The fourth wall was lined with a few benches as well as a large hook that was positioned about three quarters of the way up the ten foot tall walls. 

There were paddles and whips, handcuffs and lengths of rope along with multiple things that Jim couldn’t even name and didn’t even want to think about what they could possibly be used for. There were multiple table-like fixtures all very clearly bolted down to the floor, some were just wood while others were covered in padding. The ceiling was partially finished with the old wooden structure beams on full display running across the length of the barn and there was already a set of chains secured to one of the bigger beams. As far as Jim could tell the chains were most likely on some kind of pulley system since there was a small crank attached to another set of chains close to the ones running along the beam. 

But what was most disconcerting was the large table full of a very impressive and very diverse set of dildo as well as what looked to be a slightly larger than normal bird cage that was suspended in the air by some more chains. Chains that were definitely too thick and sturdy to have been holding up a cage meant for just domesticated birds. 

None of it spelled out anything good for Jim by any stretch of the imagination. 

“Damn, Donnie. What did you clear out every sex shop this side of the fucking Mississippi?” 

Don let out a loud laugh that almost echoed in the large room. “Oh, no. I just managed to finally get all of my collection in one place instead of having it scattered around the barn and the house.” 

Frank chuckled at the answer and set Jim down on a padded bench that was bolted down in the corner of the room next to the door. “I should have just asked you if I could bring him here indefinitely instead of taking him somewhere else, hell I don’t think even I have this many things to play with.” 

“Yeah, well I always regretted not having my full spectrum of toys at my disposal whenever I had little Jimmy around. _God_ , the things I could have done with him if I had just been more organized back when he was a youngster.” Don sighed mournfully. “You keepin’ him for long or is it just for the short run?” 

“I’m keeping him for a little while. You had anyone else in here or is it still a virgin room?” 

“Oh, I haven’t had anyone in here yet. Couldn’t find anyone who was my type. I think you might’ve spoiled me when you first brought Jimmy here. Nowadays it’s hard to find anyone who won’t go screaming to the nearest police officer if they happen to escape. You had Jimmy trained well, I’ll give ya that!” 

Frank gave Don a friendly clap on the back as he laughed along with him. “Yeah, well, it helped that I just so happened to know pretty much the whole police force and managed to, uh, _convince_ them to look the other way when it came to Jimmy. That’s the one good thing about small towns, everyone knows everyone and they are more willing to keep secrets from out of towners.Or if they don’t want to keep secrets they are more than happy to take some bribes.” 

Jim winced at the direction the conversation was taking and quickly glanced around, trying to find anyway that he could possibly escape. 

“I was honestly surprised there were so many men in Riverside that enjoyed the same extracurricular activities as I did. But then again Jim was a sweet little thing when he was younger and he obviously only got better with age.” Frank snickered as he reached over and ran a hand through Jim’s hair before tightening it around the soft strands and using it to pull him back further on the bench from where he had subtly been trying to roll off. 

Don smiled down at Jim and trailed his hand down Jim’s side, letting it fall down over his ass to give one cheek a firm squeeze. “Amen to that.” 

Frank sucked in a deep breath, shaking himself off and tearing his gaze away from where Don had started to massage the firm muscles of Jim’s thighs. “You need any help setting him up the way you want him? He’s been a bit rowdy the last half hour so you might need a second hand to get him where you want him. He might have been complacent as a kid but he’s a wily one now, those idiots at StarFleet have ruined all my hard work on his obedience training.” 

Frank pulled the backpack off his shoulder and threw it on the ground next to the bench Jim was on. “There is some alcohol and some sleeping pills in the backpack, if you need to get him to settle down. One pill and about half a shot will make him drowsy and compliant, anything more than that will just put him to sleep. You can put him to sleep if you really want to but I want him awake for when I get back.”

“Sure, I’ll never turn down some help, especially since he looks like he’s packed on a bit of lean muscle. Speaking of obedience training, you want me to work on that while he’s with me? You said he’ll only be here about eight hours while you tie up some odds and ends but I’m sure I can work some magic in that time.”

“Hell yeah, if you think you can break him in that time frame then by all means go ahead. Just make sure that if you heal up any marks you leave on him before I get back. I have to go see Andreas before he and I leave town and you know how he gets about other people's marks.” Frank stooped down and grabbed Jim under his arms, hoisting him upright till he was essentially sitting on the bench beneath him. “Where do you want the little tiger?” 

Don made a show of tapping his finger on his chin in contemplation while he looked around the room. “I think I want him on the table over there.” He said, pointing to one of the longer padded tables that was near the other end of the room. “If you don’t mind sitting him face down on it, we can untie his legs one at a time and secure him down on it. There's a padded arm hinged underneath the table that’ll get his hips nice and high up in the air. It would be a damn shame not to show off that wondrous ass.” 

Frank nodded with a chuckle, he carried Jim over to the table and Jim let out a muffled groan when he was dropped unceremoniously on the thick padding. He felt Frank reach underneath him to undo the ropes keeping his knees tied to his collar as well as the ropes that were securing his ankle to the back of his thigh. 

He had to hold in the sigh of relief when his leg was pulled down and extended to its full length after having been folded up and held in the same place for so long. His other leg was untied and pulled to dangle off the end of the table, but when he attempted to wiggle around and get his feet on the ground he was met by a harsh slap on the underside of his thigh and a large hand forcefully pushing down on the small of his back to keep him in place. 

“Now, now, Jimmy none of that. I definitely see what you mean about StarFleet. He would have never squirmed around this much back when he was just a little guy.” 

“If only we could turn back time and make him a little guy again.” Frank murmured wistfully. 

“Yeah, now that would be amazing, it’s just too bad there's no way to do that.” 

Frank rubbed up and down his back gently. “Well apparently according to one of my contacts in Starfleet someone did manage to do just that.” 

Jim’s blood ran cold and he could feel his face paling as he realized that Frank knew about what had happened on Delvia. 

“What? Are you serious?” Don asked excitedly. 

Frank hummed and nodded. “Apparently there a newly discovered planet called Delvia, they had something called a purity fruit that turns someone back to before they lost their virginity. And Jimmy here lost his quite early on. I wanted to try and get some of the fruits that the USS Enterprise had brought back with them but my contact wasn’t willing to break that many rules.” Jim could practically hear Frank rolling his eyes. “He said that someone would surely notice and he didn’t think he could get a hold of one of the leftover fruits without bringing my plan down around us before I was ready. 

Jim was completely limp as he was grabbed by the hips and slid down the table a bit until his hip bones were just slightly hanging over the edge of the table, the thought of Frank possibly getting his hands on one of those fruits and physically turning him into a child again was bone chillingly horrifying. 

The hand on his back held him still as Frank locked each of his ankles into cuffs that were attached about halfway up the legs of the table. The position forced his ass up in the air and he heard a few soft clicks before a padded wooden arm was pressed against his hips, forcing them higher up into the air until it had forced his hips so high that his legs were stretched upwards and the sides of the ankle cuffs bit into the tender skin on the top of his feet. 

He bit back a whine as Don and Frank stepped back and he could feel their gazes practically boring holes in his backside as they stood behind him and admired the view of his ample bottom. He felt Frank’s hands come up and start fondling the soft skin of his backside before giving each cheek a few smacks, the impact just hard enough to sting and leave them glowing a light shade of pink in the shape of Frank’s palm. 

“Do you want me to untie his arms?” He heard Frank ask. 

“No, I think if we just go ahead and secure the ropes you have him tied up with to the table it should be fine.” 

There was a rustle followed by the clinking of a metal box opening and closing then Frank came back around into Jim’s sight line, carrying some more coils of rope. He looped it around several of the knots restraining Jim’s arms and hands before kneeling down to tie the rope off somewhere underneath the table. 

He quickly moved to the other side and did the same, tying the rope around the knots on that side of Jim’s body and then stooping down to tie them down to the table. He then gave Jim a few experimental rough shoves, to make sure that he was held firmly down to the table, which surprise surprise, he was. 

Frank smacked him on the ass twice, once on each cheek, before turning to address Don. “That good? I really should be on my way, I have a date with a little lady and I definitely wouldn’t want to be late.” 

“Yeah, that’s good alright. I’ll take good care of Jimmy while you’re gone, Frankie. Have fun on your date and don’t hurry back!” Don called out, Jim could hear Frank’s footsteps getting more and more distant as he thundered down the stairs and presumably back out to the car. “Oh, I’ll take good care of you Jimmy. Just like I did when Old Frankie first brought you to me for ‘tutoring’.”

Jim didn’t even try to hold back the whimper that those words drew out of him. He had gone from the frying pan straight into the fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Thank you for reading and any comments or kudos you give me!


	9. Down the Rabbit Hole We Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back with Leonard and The gang, some new discoveries are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I got stuck about half way through and hit some writers block. 
> 
> I know that when it comes to the space family it might seem like I'm ignoring Scotty, but I'm not trying to. I just can't write his accent for the life of me. Kind of like the trouble I was having with Spock in ASHS.

“Leonard, please take a seat.” 

Leonard glared at Spock. Instead of dignifying him with an answer he turned and frowned at the impassive steel doors that stood between him and the meeting of the Admirals. “Why the hell aren’t they done yet? Pike has been in there for over a fucking hour!” 

“Len, you are driving us all crazy with your pacing. It won’t make them go any faster than they already are.” Uhura said lightly. It wasn’t only Leonard that was on edge as they waited for Pike to finish debriefing the admirals on what the had found in Locke’s office, each and every one of them seemed fit to jitter out of their skin. 

With a huff Leonard dropped down violently into the barely padded seat, making it slam back into the wall with the force. “How long does it take for them to realise what kind of pathetic worm Locke was and give us permission to go ahead with the investigation?!”

“Leonard, you do realise that it is entirely possible that they will not allow any of us to continue on with the investigation. They may find us too emotionally compromised or invested in a certain outcome and instead have an independent set of security officers deal with it so as to insure that no one who handles the evidence has a bias and might possibly plant or destroy incriminating findings.” 

He looked up sharply at that and gave Spock an exasperated look, not even noticing the vicious look that Uhura and Sulu both were throwing at Spock from out of his field of view. Scotty had his head in his hands and even Chekov was glaring at Spock for his callous choice of words. 

“You can’t seriously believe that Pike would let them take us off the case? I mean if Jim left any kind of clues for us to find him we might be that only people who could figure it out. Hell, we might be the only ones who actually notice what might be a clue! God only knows what one of those red shirts might miss!” 

“At this point I would consider it a shock if the Admiralty were to allow Admiral Pike to continue on the case at all, let alone let him continue to lead the investigation.” Spock said with a frown.

“Why the bloody ‘ell would they take ‘im off tha’ case?” 

“Admiral Pike was accused of pedophilia as well as what could amount to obstruction of justice in the event that he actually did get Frank off on a lighter sentence, on top of that accusation is the fact that it was made by the kidnapper well in advance to the actual kidnapping.” Spock said apprehensively. “Even though it is almost completely unlikely that Pike had anything to do with this it is still possible that the Admiralty will require an investigation into Pike as much as they will require an investigation into Jim’s kidnapping.” 

The whole senior crew was left sputtering as Spock’s words registered in their brains. “You can not really zink zat Pike vould do zat to Keptain Kirk!” 

“Ensign. While I personally do not think that the Admiral would ever betray Jim it is only logical to prepare ourselves for the worse possible outcome-” Spock was cut off by the doors to the meeting room sliding open with a _hiss_ of hydraulics. Pike stepped out the room with an irritated look marring his face. All of the crew assembled jumped up at the sight of the Admiral. Before he could even finish striding past the threshold they were practically on top of him bombarding him with questions. 

“Admiral!”

“What did they say?”

“Are ve allowed to go after zhe Keptain?”

“Have you figured anything new out?” 

“Are you going to still be leading the investigation?” 

Pike held a hand up to steady the sudden flow of questions. He took a second to compose himself, he looked a bit green around the gills and he had to take a deep breath at the looks on the crew's faces, ranging from scared to hopeful and everything in between before he could start speaking. “Hold on, Hold on.”

With a deep breath he started answering them. “Alright, to answer you questions; No, there will not be an investigation into me since I gave them full access to all of my communications and files, despite Frank’s finger pointing they quickly realised that I wasn’t involved. Yes, we are allowed to continue the investigation and I will still be leading it, they wanted to have some independent investigators doing the work but I managed to convince them that it would be better for Jim’s crew to go after him.” Pike said solemnly. “It took a bit of convincing but I got them to realise that you guys know Jim best and if anyone could think of what he might do to try and get help for him and Joanna, it would be you guys.”

Bones nearly deflated with relief at the answers. He sagged back down into his chair with his head dropped down into his hand as he took in a shuddery breath. He felt an arm slip around his shoulder and give him a solid squeeze, he looked up to see Scotty giving him a watery smile from his left side. 

“You look sick. Just what in the sam hell went on in there?” Bones asked quietly when he glanced over to see that Pike had somehow gotten even greener and looked like he was about to either pass out or go on a rampage, or probably do both.

Pike took the seat next to him after a quick glance Chekov’s way had him scrambling up out of the chair on Leonard’s right side. “Nogura and Komack were...unwilling to believe what I had said about Admiral Locke. So we had to _watch_ some of the videos of Jim that Locke had on his computer...to make sure sure it was actually child porn. That’s why...that’s why it took so long...” Pike’s voice broke off into a whisper and it was surprising to see the glassy look that had taken over his eyes. “He had over a hundred videos of Jim and - and even more photos. Including some from his academy days.” 

There was a sharp inhale from both Chekov and Uhura at that admission and the others looked fit to burn the world and every horrible person in it down to the ground. Their eyes were practically lit a flame with anger. Even Spock’s Vulcan training did not keep the heat out of his eyes and it was plain to see that his fists were balled up by his sides instead of their customary position clasped behind his back. 

“None of them were explicit!” Pike assured them softly. “But they were of him doing all sorts of things, some of them looked like security photos from his classes while others were of him doing menial simple things, like lounging in bed in his dorm room or sleeping.” 

“Wait a minute, how in the hell did Locke get pictures of him in our dorm?! There sure as all hell weren’t any security camera’s in there!” 

Pike just looked at him despairingly. “Apparently Locke was a bit obsessed with Jim and had them put up once Jim was officially settled into his dorm. Probably under the pretense of some remodeling or upgrades to the dorm room.” 

Pike waited until Leonard stopped muttering under his breath before continuing. 

“They found a couple more correspondences from Frank and Locke. Apparently he was smart enough to keep the transmissions from being detected when they were initially sent to him but then he did nothing to hide who they were from once they were on his private computer and he had only the most rudimentary security in place to keep people from accessing them. Honestly I’m surprised he actually kept anyone from getting to them.” Pike sighed and leaned back, running a hand harshly through his hair. “I don’t know how no one noticed this, but he’s been watching Jim for a while. The correspondence between Frank and him started shortly after Spock and I managed to get Frank sent to jail.” 

“So what do we do now? Did Locke’s computer reveal any new leads? Maybe - Maybe he and Frank planned out what was going to happen with Jim and decided what they were going to do once Frank left San Francisco with Jim?” Sulu asked desperately, his eyes bouncing around to glance at everyone’s faces. None of them were used to inaction, whenever there was a problem Kirk was always immediately on the ball with some kind of plan in motion, usually before they even realised there was a problem. The lack of orders, the lack of any kind of action was making them all incredibly antsy. 

There was a pause and then Pike shook his head. “Even if they had planned out what they were going to do, which we found no trace of on Locke’s computer, I doubt killing Locke was part of whatever they planned out together so any kind of plan they may have made would be useless at this point.”

Everyone looked heartbroken, their faces down turned and it was clear that everyone was lost in thought. As much as it hurt them, they couldn’t help but think about what exactly Frank might be doing to their captain. 

“When are we getting the videos of the parking lots? The ones from the apartment complex and the one from Joanna’s school?” 

Pike made a sudden noise and reached down to pluck his PADD up off the bench besides him. “The complex and the school sent them over during the meeting, but I didn’t get the chance to look over them because we were to busy going through Locke’s computer files.” 

Spock quickly held his hand out for the PADD and without a second thought Pike handed it to him. He flicked through the videos, the lights of the video flashing across his face. There was no audio to let the others know what was going on but the furrowing of Spock’s eyebrows and the grim set to his lips let them know that it wasn’t going to be anything good. He took another minute or two to replay one of the videos before sending the footage to his PADD and then handing Pike’s PADD over to Leonard. 

He quickly took a seat and started rapidly tapping on the PADD’s screen.

Leonard took the PADD with shaking hands, his fingers trembled and he had to stop and wait for a few seconds before he could actually press the play button on the video of Joanna’s school. It was from a security camera that was facing the parking lot and it showed one of the front doors to the school. The video played for a few seconds, showing nothing except for an almost completely still picture of the front door and the cars in the lot. But then the front door was sliding open and Leonard watched as Frank strode out into the parking lot, his chest practically puffed out in satisfaction and confidence with a horrid grin on his face.

He was holding Joanna’s hand and practically dragging her off her feet as he led her towards the cars. It was easy to see from the look on her face that Joanna was suspicious of the man walking with her. She kept staring at his face, almost like she was trying to commit it to memory and every time Frank opened his mouth to say something to her, her little eyebrows would furrow and get more downturned. 

They were almost to a car towards the back of the lot when suddenly Joanna’s little feet started digging themselves into the pavement. She started pulling back against Frank’s hold and Leonard was inwardly cheering at the fact that his daughter knew that Frank was no good. It was a shame that there was no audio because Joanna’s mouth was moving at a ridiculous pace and with each word Frank’s face was showing more and more irritation. 

She clearly tried to yank her arm away from where Frank had grasped it when she had first started to struggle. For a second she did manage to break away but as she turned back towards the school Frank was grabbing at her arm again, a smile that was probably intended to look soothing plastered on his face. 

It was easy to see the fluidity and grace in her nine year old body as she swung around with the momentum of Frank pulling on her and used the velocity to slam a tightly curled fist directly into Frank’s crotch, in a move that Leonard _knew_ Jim had taught her. Silently he thanked any god that was listening that Jim had managed to convince him to let him teach Joanna some self-defense moves.

As soon as her fist connected she turned and ran through the cars, weaving furiously to try and put as much distance between her and Frank as her short legs could. Frank was doubled over for a second or two before he recovered with a scowl, he let out a shout and then went hightailing after her. Leonard, however, went from nearly cheering in pride to gasping out in horror as Frank eventually caught up with her and grabbed a handful of dark brown curls to yank her back into his chest while his other hand brought a hypo down to stab into her neck. 

She struggled for a few seconds but then whatever was in the hypo flooded her system and she was slumping towards the ground. The only thing that stopped her from fully falling to the pavement was Frank’s arm around her waist lifting her up and tossing her up and over his shoulder. Frank carried her to a black car and quickly shoved her into the backseat before climbing in himself. 

 

He spent a few minutes fiddling around with something in the backseat, probably tying Joanna up so she couldn’t escape, every once in awhile he would poke his head out the door and quickly glance around to check for people. He finally climbed out of the backseat and went around to the back of the car, popping the trunk and pulling out a piece of dark blue tarp, he put it over the back seat of the car and then walked around to climb in the driver’s seat. 

The video ended shortly after the black car started up and drove out of the parking lot and onto the road out of view of the camera. 

Leonard sucked in a deep breath and had to quickly turn to sit back down in his chair before his legs gave out. He was shaking all over and he barely registered Uhura reaching over and taking the PADD out of his hands. It took a minute but his medical training finally decided to kick in and he dropped his head down between his legs and tried to focus on taking deep, even breaths to calm himself down. 

Vaguely he could feel someone rubbing his back and he could hear the soft gasps and sounds of outrage coming from Chekov, Sulu and Scotty as they watched the video of Joanna. 

“Admiral, I believe I have isolated the license plates on the cars used in Joanna and presumably Jim’s abductions.” 

Leonard looked up sharply at that. “Wait, cars? As in plural, as in he didn’t use the same car to kidnap both of them?” 

Spock nodded. “Affirmative. The car he got into shortly after he left the lobby of Jim’s apartment complex, while similar in make, model and color, was different from the one he later used to abduct Joanna.” 

“But why change cars? No one had even known Jim was kidnapped until _after_ Joanna was taken, so why risk getting caught stealing a second car when no one was looking for the first one?” 

“Maybe he _thought_ zhe car vas compromised?” Chekov added helpfully. “Ve do not know vhat he did between taking zhe Keptain and taking Miss Joanna. Perhaps ‘e did somezing to make someone else look for zhat particular car?” 

Pike stood up and pulled his comm unit off his belt, he praised Chekov as he started typing out a message. “Good job, Ensign. I’ll put out an alert out stating that if there are any reportings involving a car with the license plate he used to kidnap Jim that they are to contact me immediately.” He gave Chekov a solid pat of the shoulder. “It might not lead us straight to him since he did change cars but it might at least get us a rough line of where he went after leaving San Francisco.” 

“Spock, I want you, McCoy and Uhura to go back to Jim’s apartment and start looking through the security camera footage from the lobby of the apartment complex, we know that Joanna at least was relatively unharmed when Frank left the school with her. I wanna know if Jim is in similar condition or if we need to be worried about any injuries.”

* * *

“I don’t get it.”

Leonard and Spock looked up from their respective PADD’s to send Uhura twin questioning looks. 

“I’ve been over the three hours of footage before Jim comes through the lobby for the last time and the three hours before Frank is last seen leaving. But I can’t find out when Frank arrived or when he took Jim out.” She said exasperatedly.

Leonard’s brow furrowed and he hastily held out his hand for Uhura’s PADD. “Maybe we are looking at the wrong times.” He muttered to himself. “We are assuming that he came in _after_ Jim was seen for the last time, but it would make more sense if he was already in the building beforehand, so that he could catch Jim off guard instead of trying to push his way into the apartment.” 

He scrolled back through the lobby footage slowly, trying to think of what would have been the best time for Frank to slip in unnoticed and still have time to lie in wait for Jim to come back.   
“Spock, you said that Locke tried to drag Jim back to his office, to try and ‘convince him to have a drink’ with him. What time was that at?”

“Approximately 1630 hours.”

Leonard hmmed softly. “So, we know that Frank and Locke were working together. Maybe Frank planned to have Locke distract Jim so that he could get into the apartment and wait for him. Given the fact that around 1600 to 1615 hours is considered a rush time because people are getting home, it would make sense that he would try to slip in then. Jim wouldn’t have been back at the apartment till 1630 hours, or more like 1700 hours if Locke successfully managed to distract him, so it would have been a prime time to get there.” 

“Len, I’ve already looked at the three hours before Jim comes through the lobby at 1650 hours, Frank didn’t walk through those front door. He must have slipped in the back or through a service entrance.” 

“The luggage.”

Both Uhura and Leonard turned to Spock in confusion. “What about luggage?”

“Frank left with both a duffel bag and a oversized rolling luggage case. It should then be presumed that he must have come in with them as Leonard had went through the apartment with Admiral Pike and Myself and did not find any suitcases or bags missing from Jim’s things.”

“Okay, I’m not sure I understand why that is significant?” Uhura said cautiously. “Why does it matter if he brought the luggage cases in with him?”

Spock picked up the PADD and scrolled it back to 1600 hours before playing it again at 4 times speed. “If he had luggage it would be safe to presume that there would be some type of clothing insides. It is entirely possible that we have missed seeing him enter because he was clothed differently than he was when he left. If we look for the duffel bag and the luggage case however,” Spock said as he hit the stop button on the recording and turned it to face Leonard and Uhura. “We might find him entering the building at precisely the time Leonard had assumed he would.” 

The video was stopped at the time stamp 1609 hours and frozen on the screen was the profile of Frank, walking into the lobby. Instead of the plain t-shirt and slacks he had been wearing from the video of him exiting, his clothing was replaced by a long, dark coat and a hat that mostly obscured his hair and face. 

“This is good, now we know _when_ he got there. Now we just need to find out when the hell he got Kirk out of there.” 

“You three managed to find when Frank got into the complex?” Leonard and Uhura started slightly at the sound of Pike’s voice coming from behind them. 

They turned around to see Pike, flanked by Sulu and Chekov, standing in the doorway to the apartment. 

“Yes, we did Admiral.”

“Good, that means I won’t feel like I’m pulling you away from doing something that might be important. Grab the PADD’s and anything else from the apartment that you think we might need.” 

“Wait, where exactly are we going?”

Pike stopped, turned and halfway out the door, to address Uhura. “We got a lead on the car Frank used to kidnap Jim, not only did it turn out to be Locke’s personal vehicle but it was also impounded as part of an ongoing investigation.” 

Leonard, Spock and Uhura halted their movements. “What ongoing investigation?” 

“Apparently it was left abandoned at the scene of a police officer's murder. Chekov was right. According to the police report the license plate was flagged for running a red light and an on duty officer was at the scene of the traffic violation. Frank must have realised that we would eventually start looking for the car and once he ran the red light he decided he couldn’t drive it anymore.” Pike said with an irritated sigh. “Either way we are going to be killing two birds with one stone.” 

“How so Admiral?” 

“While you three were trying to find Frank, the security officers finally managed to track down a address for that ‘Donald McGareth’ that was on a call with Frank while he was kidnapping Joanna. His address is only about a ten to fifteen minute drive from the scene of the officer's murder. In Riverside, Iowa.” Pike said grimly. 

With a nod the six of them left the apartment, heading down to the shuttlebay where Scotty had already commandeered a shuttle to take them to Iowa. It would get them there in only about an hour and a half instead of the four to four and a half hours it would take to drive a car. 

It wasn’t until Leonard was about to stuff that PADD with the security camera footage on it into his bag that his brain finally started putting things together. And as soon as one piece clicked into place, several others fell in line as well. 

Leonard stopped short, his mouth going dry as his mind finished putting two and two together and left him realising something he might have rather lived without knowing. It took a few seconds for the other to notice that he was no longer walking with them and instead was standing frozen on the pavement a few steps behind them. 

“Doc? You coming with us or what?” Sulu asked. 

Everyone turned to look at Leonard, who in turn was staring down at the PADD in his hand.

“Doctor McCoy?” 

“I think I know why we can’t find Jim on the security camera.” Leonard said softly. 

Pike frowned and tilted his head in confusion. “Why is that?” 

“Because he’s in Frank’s suitcase.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As Always thank you for reading, commenting and giving me kudos!
> 
> There will be an updated timeline at the end of next chapter for those of you would want a concise list of the events and when they take place. (Cause god knows it's helpful when you have half the story taking place at different times)


	10. Bad Day At The Barn Yard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into Jim's time with Donald McGareth.
> 
> Contains torture which is sexual in nature

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright a few things before you guys read this chapter. 
> 
> One, This is a chapter of pure torture. Literally it's 14,710 words of torture. Most of it is sexual in nature. You have been warned. Also, apparently I have the least amount of writers block when I'm writing torture/creepy people.
> 
> Two, I know this chapter is a hell of a lot later than I would normally post it. I actually had this done last Thursday but when I went to go edit it on Saturday I realized that I made a pretty big continuity error that would have completely undermined all of the set up I did for Joanna's part in the story. 
> 
> Three, This chapter was originally only like 3,700 words, but then I had to deal with the continuity error and by that time it had already been a week since I posted and I decided that you guys deserved a longer chapter. So I added about 11,000 words to it. 
> 
> Next Chapter we will be back with The Space Family Ensemble (Including Pike) and then after that we'll have one more chapter of Jim whump before we get to the crescendo when both story line start to collide.

Jim flinched and shifted against the padding underneath him as Don’s hand came up to trace the cleft where his ass met his thigh. He tried to force his mind to focus on anything other than the feel of that cold, clammy hand moving along his body but Don was making it hard when he continued to run his hands along his body until it roamed over the sensitive skin of his ribs.

“Now, I told Frankie that I would work on your obedience training. And you know I ain’t a liar, so that’s what I’ll do. Maybe once you’ve been broken in again; we might go ahead and make a little video or something together, you know, for me to watch when you’re gone like we used to do when Frankie would leave you with me for more than a few hours. Or maybe I’ll just go ahead and switch on the video camera I have already set up in the corner and just record your whole training session to rewatch later.” He hummed contemplatively.

“It’s a shame that Frank’s only leaving you here for a few hours. Oh, the things I would do if he left you here for a day or two.” Don sighed wistfully, his hands squeezing and molding the soft flesh of his backside. “But I’ll have to settle for just a few hours instead.” He said with a smack to Jim’s ass. 

He nearly sighed in relief when Don took his hand away and moved off to the side of the table. He couldn’t see where he was or what he was doing but he could hear him moving around on the other side of him. Jim wiggled experimentally in his bonds, trying to find any kind of weak spot or loose knot that he could exploit to escape, not that he knew _how_ he was going to escape if he got his hands free. 

But if he angled himself slightly to the left as he rocked back and forth on the table he could feel the knots holding his right wrist in place glide loosely against his skin. It wasn’t much but the knot was definitely looser than when Frank had originally tied it, which meant that if he tried to subtly work at it he might be able to get one hand loose. 

‘ _One hand is a hell of a lot better than no hands._ ’ He thought sarcastically to himself. 

Jim shifted his arms, tugging and tugging against the restraints until he could almost fit his hand through the coil of ropes tied around his wrist. ‘ _Almost there. Please just keep doing whatever you’re doing and ignore me._ ’ He thought, hoping that maybe he could just will things to go his way, the way he usually did on away missions when they went bad. But this wasn’t a Klingon or an unknown species he was dealing with. This was a demon from his own childhood. 

With a soft _pop_ his hand finally slipped through the hole and he nearly let out a soft sigh of relief, though he thankfully managed to catch himself before he accidentally alerted Don. But his triumph was cut short as that clammy hand clamped itself down on his newly freed wrist, the firm grasp held it tightly in its previous position against his elbow. 

“Now just what were you planning to do there, Jimmy? Hmm? Did you think you were gonna make some miraculous escape with only one hand free?” He heard Don breath irritably against his ear as his chest molded itself against Jim’s back. “Or did you think that by getting one hand free you would already have loosened the other knot by default when you started moving your arm around?”

‘ _Damn that was actually a good idea. If only I had thought of that before you got ahold of my hand._ ’ He thought, his irritation already threatening to make him act out at the worst possible moment. 

Instead, he huffed out a response that was immediately made unintelligible by the gag in his mouth but Don must have gotten the jist of the muffled words because he removed himself from Jim's back and the hand that wasn’t holding his wrist came down swiftly against Jim’s ass. 

He was given several sharp, painful open palmed smacks against the sensitive underside of his thighs. The smacks were hard enough that the force drove his body upwards slightly, making the cuffs around his ankle bite into his skin. “I think I see what Frankie’s saying about Star Fleet ruining you. You definitely need some good obedience training to take that fight right back out of you.”

“It’s not your fault though.” Don cooed quietly. “You can’t help what those disgusting alien lovers shoved into you brain. But don’t worry Jimmy. I’ll make sure you get set straight again.”

‘ _I’m already set straight you piece of shit!_ ’ He wanted to yell. Hell he wanted to scream it at the top of his lungs. The fact that Donald thought being a xenophobic pedophile was ‘straight’ was utterly ridiculous. 

“I think the best way to get you retrained is to use the same techniques I used to train you in the first place. You know, to take you back to when you were first trained.” 

Jim tried to buck backwards to throw Don’s hand off of his wrist, but the ropes tying him down to the table were firm and held even as he strained with all his might. Instead of throwing himself back, like he was trying to, he barely even managed to lift himself up an inch off the padding. 

Don rubbed a hand up and down the back of his neck soothingly, keeping just enough pressure on the back of his neck to hold his head down and making soft shushing noises the same way a farmer would if a horse was acting up and bucking on him. “It’s alright little guy, you’ll feel so much better once you’ve been trained again.” He soothed softly, he took a little bit of his weight off of Jim’s back as he leaned over towards the toolbox that Jim knew was next to the table he was on. “I know it’s a scary world out there when you don’t have anyone to properly guide you.”

Jim could hear him rustling around in the toolbox, shifting things out of his way and then there was the smooth glide of leather against the skin of his wrist, pulling and pinching slightly until his wrist was held against his elbow even tighter than it had been by the ropes. He heard the soft clink of metal against metal as the leather strap was clasped closed, he tried to twist his hand around and grasp the lock but it had been twisted to face away from his fingers so that he couldn’t even get his fingers to grip it. 

A hand petted its way through his hair before it dropped down to his other wrist and quickly placed and buckled another leather strap right next to the coils of rope. The rope was cut off with a small bladed knife then unwrapped and pulled away, and moist fingers were being pressed into the dented, reddened skin where the ropes had dug in and begun to chafe. 

The coils holding his forearms together in the middle were also replaced by a wider leather strap, though this time the pull of the ropes wasn’t accompanied by the feeling of Don’s fingers massaging the soreness out of his skin afterwards. 

“Why don’t we go ahead and try to get those ropes off from around your chest, huh? They must be killing you. Never understood why Frankie liked ropes so much. They chafe and leave rope burn and dig into the skin, leather’s so much better.” Don said conversationally, and Jim could do nothing but grunt into his gag as Don reached down and cut the ropes that were connecting him to the table. 

He wanted to struggle but there was nothing he could do as Don fisted his hand in Jim’s hair and used it to tug him backwards. He was pulled back until he was essentially standing straight up, except the metal cuffs keeping his ankles against the table made it so that his feet couldn’t touch the ground. He had no choice but to lean his weight back against Don’s chest to keep from putting it all on his ankles and even using Don to keep him up wasn’t enough to stop the metal from biting into the skin. 

He whined softly as he felt the skin pull and begin to tear around his ankles, but then Don wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled up slightly, taking the brunt of his body weight and taking it off his ankles. The padded arm that was hinged under the table was brought up again, until the side of the padding pressed into the front of his belly. Another arm was pulled out on his left side from under the table with a click, though this one was folded up a bit oddly, with what looked like multiple pieces on different hinges stacked on top of each other and he was maneuvered to lean forward onto the first arm while the second was unfolded all around him. 

It unfolded outwards twice and when the final piece was unhinged it had extended all around him, forming a rudimentary box around his hips and the small of his back that essentially blocked him in. With a loud click the arm was locked onto the end of the table on his right side. 

Don pulled him back up with a firm fist in his hair and he was once again left essentially standing, though this time the brunt of his weight was held up mostly by his hips, which were held stationary by the padded box around them. 

He gave a few experimental wiggles but besides the sticky slide of skin against vinyl, the padded arms did not budge one bit. He had full movement of his upper body, besides his bound arms, but he couldn’t do anything more than lean backwards or forwards and his legs were practically useless as well since there wasn’t much leverage to be gained with the ankle cuffs. 

Jim moaned in frustration at the helplessness that he felt. He felt like he was little more than some doll that his step father and former ‘tutor’ were using for fun, posing and positioning him however they pleased. 

“Hey, hey, none of that now. I know you’re all eager to get started but there no need to be frustrated.” Don was stroking down his back, tracing the outline of the tensed up muscles and making nonsensical noises under his breath, the way you would soothe an unhappy child to keep them from crying. There was some soft clinking noises coming from his right where Don had gone back to digging around in the drawer off to his side, the rustle of things being shuffled around was soon accompanied by a soft shout of triumph as Don presumably found what he had been looking for. 

There was a thunk on the table in front of him as Don threw another leather strap onto the table, though this one was longer and much wider compared to the ones that had been used to restrain his arms. 

Don gave him one last ‘reassuring’ pat on the back of his neck before setting something else down out of sight behind Jim and picking up a small hunting knife. He carefully slid the knife between the ropes that were crisscrossed across Jim’s chest and his skin, then all it took was a little bit of pressure with the knife facing away from his chest and the knife had easily cut through the coarse braided texture of the rope, which released the pressure that had been keeping his bound forearms held tightly to his back. 

“There we go. That probably feels a bit better, huh? Not having those nasty ropes tearing at your skin. Let's get you all safe and secure with your arms rebound and then we’ll get started.” Don murmured as he picked up the strap and held it against Jim’s chest, fitting the top of it just under his nipples. “I remember when you were a toddler, you used to thrash and buck all over the place. You know, in the 21st century some parents used child sized straight jackets to help anxious kids feel ‘more secure’ to stop bad behavior.” 

He cocked his head to the side and gave Jim a contemplative look. “At least I think they did. I read it in a magazine somewhere.” He said with a shrug and a shake of his head.

When Jim heard the soft clinking of Don manipulating the clasp he quickly shook his head and shifted his arms restlessly, trying to get the blood flow back to his forearms with the miniscule amount of movement he had been granted when the ropes were cut off. “No? You don’t want your chest and arms bound again?” Don chuckled, laying the strap back down on the table and rubbed the sore red lines that were splayed across his flesh. “I guess you can’t really move your arms much anyway, now can you. Not with them strapped together behind your back like they are.”

Don gave a long-suffering sigh. “I’ll let it go for now, but only because you’re so used to having them unrestrained. Once we get you retrained I doubt you’ll care whether or not they are all trussed up.” He grabbed the strap off the table and threw it over back out of Jim’s sight. Jim breathed a sigh of relief and flexed his shoulder again slightly, thankful for the slight tingling that let him know the blood was rushing back to his arms. 

Don sighed again and reached down caress his ass again. “Well I’ll be right back buddy. I’ve got to go get one more thing before we start and I’ve got to go start that camera, after all I did say we were going to retrain you the same way we trained you in the first place and I’ve got most of your training stuff in tool box in the other room.”

Jim moaned quietly with relief when Don had crossed the threshold into the other room, once he was sure Don wasn’t going to turn around and walk right back out he started struggling. He was hoping that if he moved and struggled enough the arms that were holding his hips up would either break off altogether or at least come loose. He didn’t really have a plan for what he would do about the ankle cuffs in the event that he actually managed to get out of the hip holder but then again he never truly had a full plan when he did anything. 

And the away missions usually went ‘well’ even when he had nothing even resembling a plan.

All he had to do was treat this the same way he would treat getting kidnapped on a mission, by attempting to get himself out of the situation at every turn but also trusting that his crew was looking for him and trying to figure out how to get him and bring him back to them. It didn’t matter what Frank or Donald said to him, he knew deep down that his crew was going to come for him. They had never let him down before and he couldn’t see them letting him down now. 

But no matter how hard he thrashed around, the hinges and locks holding the arms in place weren’t even budging a little bit. He groaned and started twisting around, rocking back and forth at the same time while kicking his legs as much as he could but still nothing was shifting even a little bit. Instead, now he was left panting into his gag and his hips were severely chafed and aching as they were rubbed raw by the vinyl that covered the arms. 

“Looks like Frankie was right.” Jim startled at the sound of Don’s voice coming from behind him. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Don’s hands clamped down around his shoulder and forced him face down into the padded surface in front of him. 

He had been facing the door leading into the other room and he didn’t understand how Don could have gotten out the door and all the way over to him, let alone behind him, without him having noticed. “He told me you would try to find a way to escape as soon as I left you alone. I didn’t want to believe him but the evidence is obvious. It’s a good thing I had another door down to the main barn installed in the other room so I could sneak up the stairs and see what you were doing in here.”

Don then threw something down on the table in front of Jim. He had to twist his head slightly to be able to see it from where Don had his neck pinned to the pads. But when his eyes landed on the items, he was filled with both confusion and dread. On the table was an absolute _mess_ of wires connected to a box on a small strap the looked a lot like the one Don had been planning to use to bind his chest and arms except it was a little bit thinner. Next to that was a fully metal butt plug, it could have been considered a dildo but it was a tiny bit shorter and thicker than a normal dildo was. On the end of the plug was a small panel with several slots as well as some tiny outlets for plugging something in, presumably a charger of some kind. 

And last but possibly the most worrying was another collar though this one was a deep red color with a small black box attached to the center of it and on the inside of that box was a set of metal prongs sticking out of the black plastic. “You remember your collar don’t you, little guy? I know I haven’t used the other things on you before but I think they’ll go nicely along with the shock collar.” 

Jim couldn’t help the whimper that slipped past his lips as Don grabbed the shock collar and wrapped it tightly around his throat, clasping it at the back of his throat once he had discarded the collar that Frank had put on Jim. The prongs were digging into the skin of his throat, right over where his adam's apple was and he could feel the metal shifting every time he dared to swallow. 

“Now, like I said I’m gonna be using two other toys that you’ve never had the pleasure of knowing, so I’ll go ahead and explain to you what they are going to do. I wouldn’t want you to get scared because you didn’t know what’s going on. Besides, how else are you going to know what I’m training you to do if you aren’t told beforehand what is expected of you?” He said with a chuckle as he picked up the harness of wires. 

With his other hand he yanked Jim back upright again by the hair but this time he heard the clink of a chain and then there was the cold touch of metal against the back of his neck as a bolt snap hook connected to the chain was attached to the back of the shock collar. An experimental lean forward let him know that he only had about an inch of chain as leeway in any direction, which let him know why there had been chains hanging down from the beams across the ceiling when he had first been lead up here. 

Jim felt the leather strap being pulled tight around his lower stomach and the wires attached to it were left slithering all over the skin of his back. Don pulled part of the wires upwards, towards the collar and he heard a soft snap as something was clipped onto the side of his collar. The other half of the wires were left to drape down his back and he could feel them tickling the backs of his thighs. 

He flinched as he watched Don pick up the metal plug, slicking the silver surface up with a good amount of lube. He squirmed in place when Don knelt down behind him and pried his ass cheeks apart. Jim tried to clench his muscles down to keep him from penetrating him but the limited strength of his rectal muscles was no match for the two slicked up fingers that forced their way into him. 

The only good thing about this situation was the fact that Don at least had the decency to use lube instead of just trying to fuck him dry, Frank had done that on several occasions as a way to punish him when he was younger and it was definitely not an experience that he wished to ever repeat. 

A few twists and scissors of those fingers inside him, accompanied by a third finger, was evidently enough preparation in Don’s mind because the next thing Jim knew he was feeling the slick, blunt pressure of the metal plug pressing against his entrance. He let out a strangled mewl as the metal stretched him out and filled him inexorably, the hard, unmovable shape settling harshly in his bowels. 

“There we go.” Don cooed, he was back to petting Jim’s hair gently, while Jim was squirming against his restraints trying to widen his stance and relieve some of the pressure even though he knew it wasn’t possible with the ankle restraints. The plug felt far too big inside of him and he felt like he could feel every millimeter of the cold metal move when he clenched down on it. 

“Alrighty, Little Guy. Now this plug is obviously made of stainless steel and the reason for that is so that once I hook the wire harness up to it, much like the shock collar, it should give you a nasty little shock whenever I press the remote. _And_ just like the shock collar I can control the type of sensation that it gives you as well as the intensity of it. Of course as long as you obey like you should, we shouldn’t have to shock you any.” 

Jim sucked in a sharp irritated breath and tried to wiggle around as much as he could just to spite Don for his condescending tone, however he immediately stopped and let out a high pitched squeal as his throat was assaulted by a painful jolt. He whined and held himself as still as he could when a second pulse shot through him and lit the delicate nerves of his neck on fire. 

Don gave him a harsh three smacks to his ass as he leant down and grabbed the wires that were trailed down across the back of his legs. “Look at that. You can’t even get through one command without causing trouble. Lets try this again, you sit still and don’t move a muscle while I hook up the wires to this plug. Don’t think I won’t shock you again.” 

Jim tried to hold himself as still as he could until he heard the soft clicking of the wires clicking into the outlets on the bottom of the plug. Don’s hand trailed up the back of his thighs as he stood back up and fiddled with the wires along his back, shifting and moving them slightly until they were twisted together in one long strand running down the length of his spine. 

“I’m gonna take your gag out, you make any kind of sound and you’ll get shocked again. Understand?” Don waited for Jim to give him a slight nod, though the chain clipped to the back of the shock collar making it hard to move his head up and down, before his hand reached up and unbuckled the clasp keeping the o-ring gag tied around his head. 

He sucked in a breath and gently flexed the muscles of his jaw around once the gag was out. It felt weird to be able to stretch the muscles around his mouth but he was grateful for the ability, even though every movement brought with it a sting and an ache of sore flesh and sinew. 

Don chuckled and sat a bottle of water down on the table in front of him. “You must be thirsty, huh? Frankie probably didn’t give you anything to drink, he never was one to remember his boy’s needs. Hell, half the time when he would bring you here for training you would be half starved and dehydrated.” Don used one hand to pet Jim’s hair, something he constantly did to him as a kid, while the other dragged the water bottle over closer to him. 

He pulled his hand away from Jim’s scalp long enough to unscrew the cap on the bottle and unhook the chain from the back of his collar. “I want you to lean forward, take the bottle in your mouth and drink from it. If you drop it, you get a shock. If you spill any water, you get a shock. You can take as much or as little water as you want.” A snicker sounded through the room. “I’ll even let you put it down and pick it back up if you’re having a hard time swallowing it, without shocking you. Do you think you can do that?”

Jim nodded. He squared his shoulders as best he could then he took a deep breath before leaning forward and fastening his lips around the lower part of the neck of the bottle. His teeth bit down between the threads on the top of the bottle to try and keep it from falling out of his mouth. Slowly, he tilted his head back, just enough that the water started to trickle into his mouth so that he wouldn’t get choked by the sudden flow of water. 

“Uh, Uh, Jimmy. You need to lean all the way back until you are sitting straight up.” 

Jim closed his eyes, his eyes rolling beneath his lids at the condescending tone. He sucked down a few more trickles of water, trying to displace as much of the liquid as he could before sitting up. With another deep breath in through his nose he clenched the muscles in his core and hesitantly rose up till he was upright once again. He released a little bit of the pressure his teeth had on the top of the bottle, letting it droop slightly, making the water trickle out slower to keeping himself from choking as he swallowed reflexively. 

He held the bottle up until he could feel the muscles in his jaw start twitching under the strain. Jim let himself slowly lean forward again to let the bottle rest against the padding. He breathed in and let his throat swallow convulsively a few times, he was about to pick the bottle back up again but he was stopped by a hand massaging the back of his neck. 

“You did good, Jimmy. You drank almost half the bottle without spilling even a drop! That’s the boy I remember.” Don cooed at him with a humiliating amount of sweetness laced throughout his voice. Jim was honestly getting real tired of being talked at like he was a toddler, he would have cursed Don out if it weren’t for the collar and plug, he hated being talked at like a kid but he didn’t want to know what a butt plug laced with electricity would feel like inside of him. 

Don pulled him upright again by the back of the collar and rehooked the chain. “You did such a good job with that, that I’ll just go ahead and hold the bottle up for you to drink the rest.” Jim _barely_ refrained from rolling his eyes again as Don held the bottle up to his mouth, one hand holding up the bottle while the other reached down to fondle his ass cheeks and thrust the plug in and out of his channel. 

He gasped and nearly choked on the water when a particularly hard thrust jammed the blunt head of the plug into his prostate. He squirmed slightly, whining as Don continued to rub forcefully up against that sensitive little gland. 

Once the water had drained completely out of the bottle Don tossed it into a waste bin in the corner before turning back to Jim and giving him a harsh smack to his ass. “Good boy. Now, I think you need a little refresher in sucking cock, you obviously have retained some of your skills, but I don’t think you’re as disciplined as you used to be. There’s always a technique to sucking cock or at least there is if you actually want to please the man you’re sucking.” 

Jim frowned as much as he dared, not wanting to truly piss Don off, but when his ‘trainer’ brought out a relatively oversized dildo he couldn’t help the grimace that morphed his face. 

“What? You don’t like this one?” Don asked curiously. “I can go get a different one for you, I mean you have been a good boy and sometimes positive rewards _are_ the best way to train a pet.” He said thoughtfully, shifting the dildo from one hand to another. With a soft ‘hmm’ noise he turned and walked back over to the table that held his massive collection of dildos.

He stood over there for a few minutes, picking up the different dildos and inspecting them, tossing them back and forth between his hands before making a noise and setting them back down again after a few seconds of glancing at them appreciatively. 

Finally he picked up one, a faintly pink long, slimmer dildo that had a slight curve towards the tip with several textured bumps running along the sides in a swirling pattern. 

“Well, Jimmy I think you’ll like this one a bit better. It was a gift from Ol’ Frankie shortly after I first started training you. He said it was a lot like one of the ones he used to use on you, so maybe it’ll remind you of home.” 

Jim coughed slightly and cleared his throat, his voice hoarse from not being used the whole time he had been gagged. “I, uh, think my skills are more than up to par. I really don’t need to be _retrained_ in that aspect.” Jim said warily.

Don looked up sharply, scowling and furrowing his eyebrows. “Really? Because your manners definitely need to be retrained since I never told you that you could talk. Or have you already forgotten the main rule of my tutoring sessions.” He huffed. Jim had to hold back a flinch when he saw his thumb gravitate towards the remote control for his shock collar. “Actually, why don’t you go ahead and recite those rules now that you have that gag out of your mouth.” 

Jim frowned, having to refrain from laughing nervously as he tried to think back to the memories of when Don had originally started ‘tutoring’ him, memories that he had tried to block for years before his eidetic memory finally caught up with his will and shoved them far back into the dark recesses of his mind. 

Apparently however he took a few seconds too long because his throat was once again lit on fire as the tendrils of electricity shot out of the prongs at his neck and into his body. He barely managed to clamp his mouth closed so that he wouldn’t release the whimper that threatened to burst out of his voicebox. 

He panted as the shock stopped and he leaned forward, letting his weight pull against the chain behind him while he waited for the pain to subside slightly. “Th-The first rule is I am not allowed to talk unless I have been given express permission.” He panted softly. 

Don gave him a hand wave so that he knew to continue on. “Rule two,” He started, trying to bring forth the exact wording he had been taught when he was younger but the wording was fuzzy as his mind rebelled against bringing up memories that it knew would be painful to relive. “If you are on your knees or on all fours, you aren’t allowed to get up.” 

This time he couldn’t hold back the moan of pain at the burning sensation that spread throughout his ass. “That wasn’t how I taught it to you, Jimmy.” Don said sternly. He threw the dildo down onto the table and crossed his arms, making sure that Jim could still see the control held in his hand. “I know you’re smarter than that. Tell me the rules _exactly_ how I taught them to you. Every time you make a mistake or paraphrase anything, I’ll up the amount of voltage that gets sent to either your collar, the plug or both depending on how you screw up the rules.” 

Jim sucked in a deep breath and tried again, this time closing his eyes and focusing on what he remembered. “If I am put on my knees, or on all fours, I am not allowed to rise, without express permission from my trainer even in the event of someone else telling me to stand.”

Don nodded with a smile. “That’s more like it. What’s Rule Three?”

“The trainer will always be addressed as ‘My Trainer’ unless in the presence of unknown people, in that case the trainer will always be addressed as ‘Sir’.” The prongs on the shock collar bobbed up and down along with Jim’s adam’s apple. “Rule Four, Unless instructed otherwise, I am not allowed to make eye contact with my trainer or anyone else that happens to be in my vicinity.”

“Rule Five.” He started shakily, his breath hitching as the reciting of the rules starting drudging up memories of his childhood. “Rule Five, I will take all punishments and training sessions without complaint, regardless of whether I believe they are deserved or no- AH!” Jim cut himself off with a yelp as what was previously been a burning sensation in his rectum turned into a painful searing heat across his inner nerves. 

“Rule Five, I will take all punishments and training sessions without complaint, regardless of whether I am informed of the reason for said punishment or training session.” Jim tried again quickly, whimpering in relief when the burning stopped. “Rule Six, At no point am I given leave to talk about what has or will happen at any training sessions, nor will I be allowed to talk about anything pertaining to my trainer with anyone.”

His answer was greeted with a smirk and a hand gently stroking his cheek. “You are such a good boy when you want to be. Now that we’ve got that over with; Open your mouth so we can get back to ‘honing’ your skills.”

Jim debated for a second on whether or not he should disobey him and keep his mouth shut, but then as he shifted, the twinge of the plug inside him made him think twice. His mind was quickly made up when he saw Don’s finger start hovering over the shock button on the remote. 

He opened his mouth and held back a grimace at the horrible synthetic silicon taste of the dildo as Don pushed the head passed his lips, giving it short, slow strokes across his tongue as he waited for Jim to get used to the feel of the fake cock in his mouth. 

‘ _At least he is a hell of a lot more gentle than Frank ever was._ ’ Jim thought. 

He immediately took that thought back when Don ceased the slow strokes and instead shoved nearly all of the dildo into his mouth, forcing Jim to relax his throat as quickly as he could to avoid having his gag reflex engaged. But despite his muscle control he couldn’t quite get his throat to get on the same page as his brain, since a second later he was gagging horribly. 

He could feel the bile rising in his throat and evidently Don could to because he jerked the dildo out of his mouth and Jim swallowed convulsively to keep the saliva and vomit from spilling out of his mouth. The mix of stomach acid and drool burned as it went back down his throat but it was better than whatever punishment he might get for throwing up on the table. 

“That’s what I thought. Once I was done with you before, you were able to take nearly a whole cock in your mouth without even gagging a little bit.”

Jim forced himself to swallow down the sarcastic reply that was just on the tip of his tongue. He obediently reopened his mouth when he felt the tip probe at his lips and allowed Don to slide the dildo back in across his tongue. He breathed through his nose and relaxed as much as he could in this situation. In a time tested method of getting himself through sticky situations he made himself drift off to another place. 

His mind was more than happy to supply him with a fictitious place to settle while his body was being tormented. He barely even remembered to breath as his mind replaced the barn’s second floor with his old room at StarFleet Academy, in place of the fake cock in his mouth was the memory of Bones’ heavy prick pressing down on his tongue. 

Instead of his nose being filled with the sharp scent of synthetic silicon, it was replaced by the heady scent of male sweat and musk. His mouth was overwhelmed by the warmth and salty taste of his boyfriends cock which blocked out the reality of the hard, slightly cold texture of the dildo actually in his mouth. 

He hollowed out his cheeks and bobbed his head slightly, honing in on pleasuring the phantom illusion of Bones and the distant echoes of moans that his mind was supplying from his memory. Jim allowed himself to focus on relaxing his throat to let Bones’ cock slip passed the back of his mouth and down into his throat, he moaned softly, smirking slightly as a hand reached over to run through his hair, tugging him off a little bit before pulling him back down.

“That’s good, see what happens when you actually listen to me and relax instead of fighting?” Bones crooned soothingly, his hand caressing the back of Jim’s neck as it guided him to bob back and forth. 

He hummed, his tongue automatically flattening itself against the bottom of Bones’ dick as he was pulled off of it. Without even thinking about it he let his tongue flick out to dip into the slit at the end of the head. A quick swirl around the head had Bones groaning and fisting his hand in Jim’s hair to wrench his head back. 

“You look like you were born to suck cock. That’s what you were made for, wasn’t it? Not to fly among the stars fighting and negotiating; No, you were made to wrap those pretty lips of yours around a nice fat dick.” Jim’s eyes slipped closed, his soul drowning in the sound of his CMO’s southern draw. In the back of his mind something whispered that something wasn’t right, that Bones wouldn’t usually say something like that, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, not when ignorance was the one thing helping him keep this horror from overwhelming him. “You should have never gone to StarFleet. If that idiot Captain who knew your father hadn’t made Winona lose custody of you and got you sent to Tarsus, you never would have lost your training, you probably would have never even left your step-father's feet.” 

Jim grimaced around the cock in his mouth, the deep breaths he had been unconsciously taking in through his nose hitched as those words registered faintly in his brain. It was extremely rare for him to hear any amount of malice in Bones’ voice and it had never actually been directed at him. He quickly forced it out of his mind again and he unsteadily made his way through the next few bobs before regaining the rhythm he had built up. 

But the next words out of Bones’ mouth managed to shatter the illusion and suddenly his mind couldn’t keep up the illusion enough for him to deny that he wasn’t with Bones anymore. “Frankie told me he might have a way to get the bastard stripped of his ‘titles’ and hopefully he does, granted he also said that he found a way to get back at that dick of a doctor that made Dr. Mathers lose his license. But who knows, Frankie has always been a charismatic guy. That’s how he got your mother to marry him, hell that’s even how he managed to get away with bringing you here for training and fucking you for all those years.” Don said with a shrug, his other hand still wrapped loosely around the end of the dildo that was currently thrusting into his mouth. 

 

“I always envied that about Frankie, no one ever even looked twice at him. I mean it was obvious every single time he looked at you that he wanted you more than a father should ever want a son but not a single person ever questioned him.” Don honestly sounded like he was in awe, like Frank had somehow accomplished something amazing. “He even somehow managed to find a bunch of people who wanted the same thing. I guess it is true, what they say about birds of a feather flocking together.” 

Jim growled in the back of his throat and then bucked his head back, simultaneously letting the dildo fall from his mouth and knocking Don’s hand out of his hair. The hand that held the dildo dropped it and moved to grab onto the front of his collar, but instead of shying back in fear Jim surged forward and bit down on the side of Don’s hand. It wasn’t the most painful of spots to bite down on nor did it really do that much damage, but Jim didn’t care at the moment. 

No, he was more focused on causing _any_ amount of pain to the man in front of him, it didn’t matter if it was barely any pain at all or the worst pain in the universe. He felt Don try to pull his hand away and Jim sucked in a deep breath and clenched his teeth down hard, shaking and twisting his head around like a dog until he felt the skin under his teeth tear and tasted the metallic tang of blood on his tongue. 

Don let out a shocked screech as the pain registered in his mind and a second later he had brought his fist up, slamming it twice into the side of Jim’s head to try and get him to let go. But Jim persisted, the blows to his head only made him bite down harder, he could feel the thick lines of veins shifting underneath the skin as his teeth clipped and slid off the edge of delicate hand bones. 

Suddenly his throat and his ass were spasming as electricity shot out of the plug and collar and into his nerve endings. It was probably the worst thing to do to try and get Jim to let go of his hand, because the electricity forcing its way through his body made the muscles in his jaw clench down even harder and lock up. 

Jim let out a high whine, his whole body shaking and he could feel the tears start to build up in the corner of his eyes as the pain started to become almost unbearable against his throat and in his ass. 

After a minute or two he managed to will his jaw to open again and he threw himself backwards away from Don. The vinyl padding was rough and sticky against his sweaty back and he squealed as the electricity was ramped up another notch and Don moved away to dig through a different toolbox on the other side of the room. 

He pulled out a small medkit that held a small personal dermal regenerator, he growled and grumbled to himself as he ran the regenerator over the broken skin. Jim, however, was biting down on his lip hard enough to break skin, the muscles in the legs were cramping up painfully and it felt like his throat was closing up on him. But he didn’t want to give Don the satisfaction of hearing him scream out in pain, even though it felt like that might be the only thing he could do. 

Finally after what felt like an eternity Don must have hit the stop button on the remote because all of a sudden his muscles released their tension and he slumped down back into his restraints, granted his muscles were left trembling from the prolonged cramping. 

Jim panted, trying to force as much air as he could into his lungs and he could feel himself shivering while the previously chill air felt like a cold breeze as the sweat started to cool and dry on his skin. Or maybe the shivering was from the leftover after shocks of having electricity running through his tissues like a stampede.

“Why did you make me do that, Jimmy?” Don asked as he slowly made his way back over to the table. 

His voice was pitched to be both inquisitive and soothing with not even a hint of irritation, the kind of voice you would use on an unruly child when you didn’t want them to realize they had succeeded in annoying you. But the look in his eyes betrayed just how irritated he was at Jim having bit his hand. 

He wasn’t given the chance to answer his question, not that he was particularly inclined to, because as soon as he was close enough to the table Don picked the gags Frank had used on him back up and quickly stuffed the o-ring back between his slack jaws muscles before he could attempt to bite him again. 

Don of course needn’t have worried since Jim was never making that mistake again. At this point Jim could do little more than sag against the back padding and moan pathetically into the gag. 

Don gave him a mystified look, like he was honestly trying to riddle out _why_ Jim had bit him. “Did I go to fast?” He asked, a genuinely curious note in his voice. 

Then his hand was tentatively brushing through the hair at the back of Jim’s head, the same way you would pet a dog that had just snapped at you, but one that you didn’t actually want to harm for snapping at you. When Jim did nothing but gaze dazedly at him he let out a long sigh. “I guess I’m still treating you like someone who’s already _been_ trained and not someone who _needs_ to be trained.”

“Now that I’m thinking back on it I never used that shock collar on you till I had already been training you for about half a year.” Don huffed and played with the red fabric of the collar for a minute or two. “How about this, the collar and the gag will stay on but I’ll take the plug out of you since you sure as shit aren’t responding well to it and we’ll disregard your blowjob training, since it’s clear to me now that you still have those skills somewhere in that big brain of yours.”

Don walked behind him, running a sweaty hand down the back of his thighs when he let out a soft whimper, and gingerly worked the plug out of him. Jim didn’t even think about masking his moan of relief when the plug finally slipped free and his sore ass was left blessedly empty. “Before you go getting all excited that the plug is finally out of you, just know that you _are_ going to be punished for biting me. Just not in the way I was originally intending to punish you.”

A hand found it’s way to his back and deftly unbuckled the strap that was holding the wires against his spine. It was pulled off and set off to the side where it had come from in the first place. He was pushed forward until his head was pressed against the padding, though this time he let his head rest against it instead of trying to lift himself back up once Don’s hand was pulled away. 

The was a few clicks that sounded off in the air and he felt the vinyl covering being pulled away, it stuck to his sweaty skin a bit as the arm was folded back up and pushed down under the table. He felt the ankle cuffs snap apart and release his ankles, Don grabbed him underneath his arms and hoisted him up and off the table so that he was standing. 

His feet hit the floor and Don took his hands away only for Jim to immediately collapse under his own weight. It turned out that his legs had practically been turned to jelly by the electricity, the muscles were still trembling under the thin layer of his skin.

Even if he wanted to he couldn’t take advantage of his newly freed legs because he could barely make them move let alone carry his weight up and out the door in any kind of fashion that wouldn’t let Don catch him before he reached the stairs. Don picked him back up by his armpits again and leaned back slightly so that most if not all of his weight was being held up by Don. 

He was half carried half dragged across the room to a chair like structure. Or at least in Jim’s mind it looked like some kind of chair, if someone had broken the back off of it and let the back fold backwards at a downwards angle until the tip of it almost reached the floor. Don pushed him closer until his knees hit the edge of the horizontal piece and he was thrown forward onto it. 

His head fell about a foot up from the floor, the padding was the only thing keeping him from meeting the floor in a very painful way. He felt Don grab his legs and swing them up onto the padding, then he was shuffled and pushed forward until his hips were flush against where the two padded pieces of the chair met. 

It was a position that was somewhat reminiscent of the one he had been in before, with his ass tilted up into the air, except this time his head was way below the level his hips were on while his legs were at the same height. He let himself continue to lay limp as Don pushed and arranged him however he wanted, he knew it was because of the whole ordeal with the electricity but that didn’t change the fact that his whole body felt bone tired. 

He honestly just wanted to lay his head down on something soft and sleep, hopefully dreaming of being back where he belonged, with his crew, his family, instead of in this hell. 

But he couldn’t let himself sleep. Not when he didn’t know what Don had in store for him while they waited for Frank to return from his ‘date’.

“Just a few more finishing touches and then we’ll be on our way, Little Guy.” 

Jim panted heavily, the hot air from his nose caused the padding to fog up a bit, and wiggled tiredly as Don reached under the angled portion of the chair and folded two thick black leather straps over his back. He wiggled hesitantly a few more times, trying to find a slightly more comfortable position where the straps weren’t pressing his arms into his back too painfully, once he managed to settle he let his head turn back to the side and laid his cheek against the vinyl. 

Don’s hand made its way back to his cheek, stroking the flushed skin delicately a few times as he finished buckling Jim down to the table. “I guess that electricity zapped all the fight right out of you didn’t it?” He crooned softly, bringing another set of straps down across his legs right above his knees. “I haven’t seen you this docile since I left the fucking machine turned on for three hours on full speed when you were 8.”

“Why don’t you take a break for a little bit, since I don’t think you’re going to be disobeying me or Frank anytime soon, now that you’ve had a taste of what will happen. I’ll leave you alone for a little while, since it’s not like you can go anywhere.” Don patted his head a few times and then Jim heard his footsteps recede to the other end of the room, followed shortly by the sound of a door closing. 

Only once the door had closed and he heard footsteps walking down the stairs did he finally allow the tears that had been gathering in his eyes to fall and a soft whine of defeat to pass his lips.

* * *

Jim jolted awake to the feel of something braided and rough slithering against the cool skin of his ass, he tried valiantly to turn his head back and forth trying to see what was going on behind him, but the downward angle of the chair table thing made it nearly impossible for him to see anything. 

He rocked back slightly trying to buck whatever it was off of him, a second later the braided fabric was pulled away, only for a soft _whoosh_ to sound through the air followed by a sharp pain flaring up across his ass. 

“Stop moving around, you’ll only make this harder on yourself.” 

With another _whoosh_ the pain was back and Jim found himself tensing up with a soft yelp as whatever it was came down again and again against his sensitive flesh. He squirmed against the straps holding him down, trying to at least make whatever it was hit someplace that wasn’t already burning. 

“I said stop moving!” Don yelled irritably, this time instead of coming down on his ass the braids rained down on his lower back right below his bound up arms. 

Jim groaned at the impact and the leather straps creaked when he threw his weight against them, he might have been out of it earlier but it seemed like the little bit of rest he had gotten replenished some of the fighting spirit he was so well known for. The leather straps bit into his calves, his legs thrusting up into them while he kicked and thrashed against their hold, he heard Don growl in anger when the strap attempting to restrain his lower legs snapped at the clasp and released his legs. 

“God dammit, Jimmy!” He felt Don’s hand trying to come down to grab at his legs, but he just kept kicking, somehow managing to land one or two good kicks to Don’s arms and chest which earn him a loud yelp .

Another well placed kick backwards had Don being thrown hard enough that he landed on his ass. Jim fought upwards, his joints nearly screaming out at his rough and wild thrashing, but he didn’t care, he was going to try his damndest to get his arms free now that he had his legs free. A final hard jerk along with a twist had the straps holding his back and shoulders down ripping near the hinges. 

Apparently the straps on this particular table were not nearly as strong as the ones that were on the other table he had been strapped down to before. The fact that his ankles weren’t in steel cuffs probably helped in allowing him to start escaping. 

He heard Don groaning and looked over to see him starting to pick himself up. Quickly he rolled himself over onto his back, thanking his lucky stars that Don hadn’t thought to strap his legs together as well as strapping them down to the table. Jim managed to sit himself up on the horizontal part of the table just in time for him to lift up his leg and deliver a swift kick to Don’s stomach when he finally got up. 

Taking advantage of the fact that the force of his kick had knocked Don back down to the floor, he planted his feet on the ground, throwing himself forward and fully onto his feet, thankfully his equilibrium was intact enough that he was able to keep his balance despite his tied arms. Don was writhing on the floor, his arms wrapped around his midsection as he whined in pain from the kick to what Jim thinks may have been his kidneys or possibly his liver, either way he had clearly hit something that hurt. 

Jim stumbled slightly as he started shuffling his way around Don, he might have been able to get himself standing but walking and running were definitely going to be a hassle with his arms literally tied behind his back. He managed to stumble his way to the door, which was graciously unlocked. 

‘ _Thank you for letting Don be arrogant enough to not lock the door after himself._ ’ He thought with a glance thrown skyward. 

With one last look back at his ‘trainer’ who was still surprisingly on the ground, Jim jammed his shoulder into the panel beside the door, opening it out onto a staircase. He was tempted to just run down the stairs but he figured it was better to take it a little bit slower than he normally would, because falling down and cracking his head open on the floor of the barn was probably just as bad as getting caught by Don. 

However as soon as his feet hit the hay covered floor he was practically sprinting, distantly he could hear the sound of the door sliding open at the top of the stairs followed by the sound of Don cursing and thundering down the stairs. 

He made it out the barn door and he took a second to look around, trying to figure out which way was going to give him the best chance of running away or at least give him the best chance of hiding until Don went somewhere else and he was able to make some semblance of an escape. On his left was the open field which was practically useless to him, seeing as Don would immediately be able to see him and either run at him faster than Jim could get away or use something to incapacitate him, since running in the field meant that he would be a straight shot for any kind of weapon. 

Straight in front of him was the farmhouse, which might give him the ability to hide out in one of the rooms but if Don saw him running in there it also meant that Don could literally just lock the front door behind him and have Jim trapped once again. Behind him was obviously the barn, of course he wasn’t going to go back in there because Don was still in there and fuck that. 

Which left him with the option of running towards the right of the barn, and that path led him down the driveway with trees on either side about 20 maybe 30 feet down the road. Hearing Don’s cursing getting close to the barn door he shook his head and made the split second decision to run off to the right and towards the cover of the trees. Apparently he was a hell of a lot faster than Don even when he literally had his hands tied behind his back because he had just barely managed to clear the road and nearly dive into the tree line right as the bright light of a flashlight sweeped over the area just outside the barn. 

Not that he was complaining, he sure as hell was not complaining about escaping, but Don really needed to up his fucking cardio and endurance routine if Jim could run 20 or 30 feet in the time it took him to find a flashlight and run out of the barn. Then again Jim was pretty used to running for his life, though on away missions he usually had the added security of Spock helping him or his crew attempting to beam him out of wherever he was. 

Now that he was in the cover of the trees he made sure to slow his gait, his survival instincts were telling him to just full on run in this direction and not stop or slow down until he found some other kind of civilization that _wasn’t_ Don. But his mind knew better, if he went running off into the distance he would be making a hell of a lot more noise than if he was just slowly making his way through the trees and that wasn’t even taking into consideration the fact that if he went trampling through the underbrush it would give Don a clear path to follow leading right towards him.  
‘ _Damnit why does every asshole in Iowa need such long fucking driveways. Why can’t they live like 50 feet away from each other like everywhere else._ ’ He thought irritably, he was making his slow ass way towards the street end of Don’s driveway making sure to zig zag every once in awhile in case Don did end up finding his tracks. 

Every few minutes or so he would see the light of the flashlight barely glance through the thick line of trees and he would stop and either duck behind a bigger tree or he would drop to the ground but dropping to the ground made it incredibly difficult to get back up since he didn’t have use of his arm or hands and he wasn’t in the advantageous position of having his ass on what was practically a chair. 

‘ _How fucking long is this damn driveway!_ ’ It felt like he had been walking forever and he was starting to think that maybe he had zig-zagged a bit too far away from the driveway seeing as he hadn’t actually seen it in the last few minutes and he had turned around quite a bit while he was ducking behind the trees and attempting to throw Don off his trail. 

With a huff he realized that he hadn’t heard Don call out his name in the last few minutes either. He glanced around at his surroundings, hoping to maybe find something that would lead him back to the driveway, hell even a no trespassing sign would be good since it would let him know that he was either still on Don’s property or that he had accidentally crossed onto someone else's property. But all the trees looked pretty much the same as he spun around in a slow circle, there was nothing in his immediate sight range, and it was a pretty distant sight range seeing as the sun had nearly completely risen up over the horizon. 

Given that it was the beginning of January on Earth and the sun had only just finished clearing the horizon that meant that it was probably only about 0730 hours _maybe_ 0800 hours in the morning. Jim frowned as much as he could around the gag in his mouth as he realized that he had already spent nearly the whole night with Don and that if he didn’t get away soon Frank would be coming back to get him. 

He needed to either be long gone or with someone who would actually help him by time Frank got back or else his chances at escape would drop drastically. 

His adrenalin was finally started to wane and he could feel the slight chill in the air work its way into his bones. Jim wiggled his toes in the dirt, taking the time to sneak another glance around at the trees which didn’t reveal anything new that could help tell him where he was but it also didn’t reveal Don lurking around anywhere near him. Thinking about it, he realized that he hadn’t seen the light of the flashlight anytime recently either. 

Now that might mean Don had turned the flashlight off because it was light out again or it meant that he had turned it off and stopped calling out for him because he was closing in on him and was trying to be stealthy. 

He was seriously contemplating either sitting down on the ground and giving his legs a few minutes to rest while he decided which direction to go off in or just continuing to walk in the direction he was facing and hoping that he hadn’t got turned around enough to be facing back towards the barn. 

Before he could make his decision, which of course would have been to keep heading the direction he was going and hoping that it was a good direction, his eyes were drawn to a soft flash of red light that appeared out of the corner of his eyes bouncing back off the truck of a tree to the right of him. His brows furrowed in confusion and he turned, trying to figure out what had caused the light to suddenly appear in his line of vision but by time he had turned the light was already gone. 

His head cocked to the side and he blinked slowly before shaking his head and turning to glare at the tree, daring the light to blink back into existence. He had been staring for a second or two and was about to turn his head away when the light flashed again but it wasn’t on the tree he was looking at, instead this time the light was bouncing off a different tree once again on his right side. 

Jim spun around again facing the second tree, only to find that the light was gone. _Again_. 

With a huff he started walking again, deciding to ignore the light and deem it simply a figment of his imagination. His mind was probably just playing tricks on him, after all he had been through the past day or so it wasn’t exactly a farfetched idea. 

He made it a total of about 10 feet and then the light caught his eye for the third fucking time. This time however he decided to stop and glare at the tree in front of him. A second or two passed by and the light flickered again. On a different tree. To his right. 

With a blink he turned his head slightly to the left. 

Lo and Behold a second or so later the light was back, practically taunting him with its flashing, though this time it was back on the tree that he had seen it on the third time it caught his eye. A turn to the right and it was winking in and out of existence on the fourth tree. 

It wasn’t until he rotated back towards the left one more time and saw it dancing across the bark on the third tree that everything clicked in his mind. 

Don had clipped a small box to the side of the shock collar when he had originally put the wire harness for the plug on him, but when Jim thought back to it he realized that Don hadn’t unclipped it when he took the wire harness off. 

The light kept moving because it was being emitted from the box that was on the side of his neck, it only moved when he would turn his head because the position of the box turned with him. 

‘ _But why is it giving off that red light? Is it part of the shock collar?_ ’ He thought questioningly.

_Snap_.

Jim sucked in a sharp breath as he heard the telltale snap of a branch behind him the second that his mind simultaneously realized that the little black box was mostly likely in fact a tracking device. 

Which meant he had never truly escaped and Don had most likely been toying with him this whole time, drawing out the torture by making him think that he actually had a chance. 

Without so much as a glance behind him he took off in the opposite direction, barely hearing the thundering footsteps behind him over the pounding of blood rushing through his ears. He threw himself to the left, nearly ramming his shoulder into a tree, when he heard the high-pitched whine of a stun charge discharging from a phaser. The blinding blue light flew passed him, narrowly missing his side as he reemployed his zig-zag technique, silently cursing himself in his head for not stopping and trying to pry the collar off with a tree branch or something. 

Step two after getting out of Don’s immediate line of sight should have been trying to get the collar off. 

As he ran and dodged he took a second to try and figure out why Don just hadn’t shocked him with the collar instead of letting him run rampant across his property but his mind supplied him with the realization that he had probably ran out of range when he first got out of the barn. But he didn’t have much time to dwell on _why_ Don had done what he had done as the woods were lit up with bright streaks of light streaming passed him on both sides. 

He was eternally thankful that Don seemed to have a pretty much worthless aim along with his shitty cardio and downright useless endurance capabilities. But his luck finally ran out as he attempted to cut around a tree and start running to the left, only to slip on a combination of loose dirt and unearthed tree roots that were littering the ground. He tried desperately to get his bearings back under him but it was rendered useless when Don turned the corner and stared down at him. 

Jim didn’t even get the chance to let out any kind of noise before his vision was filled with the brilliant light of the stun charge and his body was left practically frozen and aching. 

“Well, Well, Well, Look who I found running around in the woods in the woods.” Don cooed condescendingly as he stood over Jim’s stunned body. “You know, you shouldn’t be out here all alone. You never know what kind of bad people might be lurking around in the trees.”

Jim was helpless to do anything but stare up at Don as he grabbed ahold of him and lifted him up and over his shoulder. He stared at the ground from his position over Don’s shoulder as Don started heading back towards the house. 

It turned out that Jim had in fact gotten turned around enough to be heading back to the house because Don didn’t turn at all when he started walking, which of course meant that Jim had already been running right back towards the house. The only thing that would have made Jim feel worse was if he had actually ran all the way back to the barn without realizing it and trapped himself there. At least this way he had gotten a little bit away before Don had gotten to him. 

Jim whined inside his head, he had been _so close_ to fucking escaping, he didn’t know where he had been escaping to but escaping at all was better than having been passive in his own torture. 

The walk seemed to take fifteen times longer on the way back then it took for Jim to run away in the first place and it wasn’t like Don was giving him any kind of conversation to keep his mind busy while they walked. It wasn’t until he was being carried through the threshold of the barn and up the stairs to the second floor that Do finally started talking to him again. 

“It’s a good thing I thought to clip that tracker on your collar when I first put it on you, otherwise you would have gotten away and I probably never would have found you. That’s the hazard of living on as much land as I do.” 

He carried Jim back over to the broken chair looking table, or whatever the fuck the thing was, and practically threw him down face first onto it. Don grabbed a hold of his sprawled out legs and pulled them down to lay flat and pushed them until they were completely parallel to each other. A thick leather strap was quickly wrapped and buckled around his legs, right below his knees and then a thinner leather strap was wrapped firmly around the thickest part of his ankles to keep them forced together. 

‘ _Looks like I won’t be getting lucky a second time._ ’ Jim thought sarcastically as Don pulled him downwards towards the floor by his shoulders. 

This time Don clipped a small chain to the front of the shock collar and then hooked it on the very end of the table, making it so that his head was kept at the very end of the table that was declined downwards. This time Don made sure to chain him down instead of wasting his time with holding him down with the straps. There was a chain across both his upper and lower back as well as another two chains stretched across the back of his knees and right above his wrapped up ankles. There was no way in hell that he was going to managed to break or unhook any of these chains and every single length of chain was cinched tight enough that he could feel them digging into his skin so he couldn’t even try to wiggle out from under them. 

No that he could do much of anything when he was stunned. 

“You are going to regret trying to run away, Little Guy.” 

Jim wanted desperately to squirm around under the chains when Don turned around to face him and he saw that he had the metal plug, along with all of the still attached wires, back in his hands. Don threw the plug on top of his back and picked up a long, slim wooden paddle, he use one hand to pried apart Jim’s ass cheeks. Then he brought the paddle down straight over his asshole with a loud _Thwack_. If he could have, Jim would have screamed at the pain that lanced up his spine when the paddle repeatedly struck the sensitive skin of his ass crack. 

He already knew that his mind wouldn’t send any signals to his legs to buck, because he was still stunned, but he still sent out a thought trying frantically to get his legs to move. After a few more smacks Don finally put the paddle down off to Jim’s side and instead picked up the metal plug and lubed it up. He didn’t give Jim even a second to prepare before he was stuffing the fat plug up his sore ass, and his lax muscles did nothing to keep the burn from the stretch from invading his mind. 

The wire harness was laid over his back, Don not even caring enough to actually strap it around his waist this time, he heard the soft click of a remote and then his ass felt like it was on _fire_. Don walked over to one of the long tables that were set up against the far wall, littered with dildos and other things, and grabbed a black box with a long black rod sticking out of it at an angle. He also grabbed the pink dildo that he had used earlier to ‘retrain’ Jim and made his way back towards Jim. 

Don set the box down directly in front of Jim’s face with the rod angled a few inches away from his face. He took the dildo and quickly screwed the dildo onto the end of the rod, then he grabbed the bottom of Jim’s chin and pulled it over the edge of the table so that he was forced to keep his head straight up instead of laying his cheek against the padding. Once he was done with that he pulled the ball gag out from between the o-ring keeping Jim’s slack jaw open and slid the end of the dildo forward until just the head was resting on his tongue. 

“You won’t be able to talk for days even if someone takes that gag out of your mouth once I’m done with you.” Don breathed harshly into his ear as he fisted his hand in Jim’s hair and gave it a few short, painful tugs, nearly dislodging the dildo in his mouth. 

Don reached down and flicked a switch on the back of the black box, with a soft creak the machine whirred to life, the dildo slowly easing its way back and forth across his tongue. Don smirked and let go of his hair, hitting a button on the back of the machine three times. Suddenly instead of a slow, relaxed slide back and forth the dildo was pistoning out of his mouth, pretty much slamming against the back of his mouth before finally managing to force its way passed and down into his throat. 

The only thing that kept him from gagging and choking himself to death was the fact that all of his muscles didn’t even have the option to tense up because he was _still fucking stunned_. He had to make himself remember to breath in and out through his nose now that his throat was completely obstructed by the silicon cock. 

Don stroked his fingers around the edges of Jim’s lips where they were stretched wide around both the gag and the dildo, he ran his finger through the drool that was slipping out of the corners of his mouth and used it to wet Jim’s lips, leaving them glossy and glistening. 

“Don’t you just look so damn pretty with your lips all stretched out like that. Like I told you before, you were made for sucking cock, not galavanting across the galaxy like the hero everyone fancies you are.” He gave both of Jim’s cheeks a few light smacks, making them flush a sweet shade of pink. “But I know you for what you were before StarFleet, I knew you back when you were just your step-daddies cute little whore, sucking cock and getting reamed up the ass just so you could eat everyday. Do you do that at StarFleet, Jimmy? Do you bend over and open your mouth for every Professor or Captain or Admiral that so much as looks your way?”

He chuckled darkly. “Even on Tarsus you were selling yourself out for survival, granted it wasn’t just to ensure your survival it was to ensure the survival of all those kids you kept alive, so I guess that at least was for a noble cause. You think your real dad is proud of you? You think he would have sacrificed himself so readily for you if he knew what you would become?” 

Jim squeezed his eyes shut to stop the tears that were building up from spilling over and down his cheeks. He tried his hardest to block out what Don was saying and ignore all the thoughts and memories that those words were dragging to the forefront but everything Don was saying was something that he himself had thought at one point or another in his life. 

Jim whimpered to himself as the dildo violently plundered his mouth, Don was busy picking up another paddle and rubbing it against his ass cheeks, teasing him with the knowledge that he was going to get spanked but not allowing him to know when exactly the first strike was going to land on him. 

_Smack!_

Jim’s eyes flew open when the first smack landed across his right ass cheek, followed quickly by an even harsher smack across the left cheek that echoed throughout the room, the pain of the smack was followed by a significant increase in the burning sensation that was flooding his ass from the plug. He heard another click and the persistent burn changed into a strange pulsing burn that somehow managed to penetrate him even further and set new nerves alight that he wasn’t even aware could hurt. 

The first part of his body that was free from the stun charge was unfortunately his face and throat, and he had to scramble frantically to control his gag reflex so that he didn’t end up vomiting around the dildo, he had a feeling that Don wasn’t going to stop and pull it out of his mouth just because he started aspirating on his own bile. His attempt to keep control of his breathing was significantly impaired by the almost constant thwack of the wooden paddle again his rear end, every hit of the paddle drove the plug further into him, which in turn further irritated the sensitive insides of his bowels. 

He let out a muffled squeal when a particularly hard smack made his ass cheek tense up and starting cramping, he could feel the hot trail of tears as they starting running down his cheeks, it felt like he was being burned from the insides out and truthfully he actually was. 

Suddenly the chiming ring of a communicator filled the air and Jim couldn’t stop himself from mental breathing a sigh of relief, since he couldn’t actually breath a sigh with the dildo in his mouth, when Don stopped spanking him and threw the paddle down onto his back. Don walked to the other end of the room and snatched the communicator off of the toolbox in the corner.

“Hey, Frankie! How’d your date go?” Don asked as he walked back over to Jim, he sat himself down on the very edge of the table and kept his left hand occupied by lazily playing with Jim’s hair and tracing shapes along his arms and back. “Oh? You want me to put you on speaker so that Jimmy here can hear you? Well just so you know his mouth is a bit _preoccupied_ so he won’t be able to talk to you.” 

“ _That’s fine, I don’t need him to talk. I want you to enable the video feed on your communicator so I can see him._ ” Jim heard the distorted version of Frank’s voice through the communicator before Don stood up and walked backwards slightly so that he could point the communicator’s camera back at him. “ _Well doesn’t he look pretty like that. Where is his collar?_ ” 

Don chuckled and moved forward to get a closer up of Jim’s face where it was getting viciously fucked by the dildo. “I had to take it off so I could put his shock collar on, I wanted to try and retrain him the same way I trained him in the first place. Don’t worry I’ll make sure he has it back on before you come to pick him up.”

“ _Speaking of me picking him up, I was actually calling to see if you would just go ahead and drop Jimmy off at Dr. Andreas’ practice at around 1030 hours. I’ll meet him there about an hour later because it took me longer to get to my ‘date’ than I thought it would._ ” Frank said irritably. 

“Did your date stand you up or something?” 

“ _No, I just arrived at the place that I’m supposed to pick her up at, I just had a little bit of trouble finding and getting into the place where she is. I’m gonna keep you on the comm while I go to pick her up though because I want Jimmy to know who it is. I think he’ll be in a bit more of a complacent mood after he finds out who my date is._ ” Jim could vaguely hear the sound of a car door slamming shut followed by footsteps thudding on pavement. “ _Don’t say anything and don’t let Jimmy there make any noise, I don’t want her to know I have anyone on the comm. I don’t know how she’ll react to finding out Jimmy is listening in._ ”

Don hummed softly in agreement and started fondling Jim’s ass, pulling and thrusting the plug in and out of Jim’s ass while he was at it. There was a soft beep and then the tell tale swish of a hydraulic door opening, Frank cleared his throat and started talking to someone. “ _Hi, Ma’am. I’m here to pick up Joanna McCoy?_ ” He started softly, with a sickeningly sweet note to his voice and Jim’s eyes widened at the name. “ _Someone from StarFleet should have called to let you know I was coming to get her, her father needs to see her and her mother wasn’t able to come pick her up._ ”

Jim whimpered, he couldn’t believe that Frank was actually going as far as to kidnap Joanna, an innocent little kid who just happened to have the misfortune of know Jim.

There was an unintelligible female voice talking in the background, presumably letting him know that she was calling Joanna up to the front office, and he vaguely heard Frank flirting with the receptionist at Joanna’s school, charming and captivating her with his ‘charismatic’ personality. 

He thought he heard Frank greet someone else, it might have been Joanna or it might have been him talking to the receptionist once again, but there was no way for Jim to be completely sure.

“ _Alright, I’m gonna let you go, I’ll meet you at Andreas’ in an hour or three._ ” Frank whispered softly into the comm unit. 

Don gave a short affirmative answer before snapping the communicator shut and turning back to Jimmy. “Well, looks like it’s just you and me for a little bit, I guess I’ll have to get you all tied up and ready for transport, huh?” 

Don flicked the switch on the back of the black box, forcing the dildo to stop in its tracks, he unscrewed it from the rod and threw it off to the side before shoving the ball part of the gag back into the middle of the o-ring gag without giving him a chance to recover. He unhooked the chains keeping Jim forced down against the table and unhooked the clip keeping his head down against the end of the table. 

Then he flipped Jim over onto his back and shoved his ankles up against the back of his thighs, which in turn forced his knees up against his chest, a position which was very reminiscent of the position he had been forced into when Frank had first tied him up. Except now instead of being tied with ropes, he was being held in place by a bunch of leather straps. 

Another wide leather strap was wrapped across his shins and around behind his back, compressing him into as small of a ball as he could be forced into. Frank’s neon blue collar was fastened above the shock collar and then they were both clipped with a short chain to the front of the leather straps, making his head bow forward till his forehead was pressed against the top of his knees. 

“There we go, now you’re just a pretty little package. If only I had a bow to gift wrap you in for when Frankie gets to Andreas’ place.” 

Jim moaned as the plug was set to a low burning buzz in his ass and Don gave him one last pat to the head before lifting him up and moving to leave the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter up in a week or so, maybe soon. 
> 
> Thank you every one for reading, giving me Kudos and especially for commenting!


	11. Around and Around The Merry-Go-Round Goes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Space Family finally gets some more leads and the investigation gets into full swing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I want to start off by saying I sorry this took nearly 20 days to be updated! However, I hopefully have made up for that by giving you a 25,000 word chapter. This chapter does _technically_ have violence or rape or murder in it but it does have a few instances of describing the murders that have previously happened in the story, plus a tiny bit of new violence. 
> 
> It tried to pack this chapter full of action because I've decided to forgo the next Jim chapter (that was supposed to be another full chapter of torture) and instead just make the next chapter the mash -up chapter that I've been talking about where the time lines collide. This chapter also has a bit of character relationships, mostly showing you a bit of how a few characters relate to Jim. I tried to stay away from having the chapter solely be Jim/Leonard POV's
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy!

_Somewhere in Riverside, Iowa; 1800 hours (6pm); Third night of Shoreleave_

 

Leonard didn’t have to look up to know that there was a mixture of confusion and most likely horror written across the senior crew’s faces. He knew it was there because it was mirrored on his own face. The startling realization had made an ache start to grow in his chest and as much as he had really wanted to deny it he knew that it was, to use Spock’s words, the only real logical explanation. 

How else could they explain how Frank managed to get Jim in and out of the apartment complex without anyone seeing the two of them? There might not have been any camera’s in the back of the complex but the front parking lot camera had clearly shown the image of Frank getting in and out of one car and both times Jim hadn’t been with him. Frank hadn’t gone anywhere except in and out of the front door, even after looking back over the footage from the whole time Jim had been staying in that apartment it never once showed Frank going in and out of any other door. 

He had tried to deny it and work around it when the thought had first come into his mind by thinking that Frank had possibly drove off and then made his way to the back alley or something, but the security camera facing the parking lot had also had a good view of the street leaving the parking lot. A street which had no way of getting to the back of the apartment complex no matter where you turned on it. 

In fact there was no way for anyone to get to the back alley of the complex unless they went around the side of the building, which was in full view of the camera that covered the parking lot. And there had been absolutely no images of Frank ever even straying towards the sides of the building let alone going back towards the alley. The only thing they couldn’t account for was the inside of the luggage bag that Frank had carried in and carried out the last time he was recorded in the apartment complex. 

Which meant that the only place Jim could be, if he actually was taken out at the same time that Frank had left for the last time like the evidence showed, was _inside_ that luggage bag. 

“Wait a minute, you can’t seriously believe that Jim is _inside_ that bag, right? Like there is no way that someone would be horrible enough to do that to another person, how the hell would he even fit?” Sulu asked exasperatedly. 

“Technically given the approximate size of the rolling luggage bag, Frank could have actually fit Jim inside of it. He would have either needed him to be sufficiently restrained in a way that would make him compacted enough to fit in the center of the bag or he would need Jim to be limp enough that he could maneuver his limbs inside and move him around without him being able to resist the way he was being positioned.” 

Leonard heard a sharp intake of breath from Chekov and he could almost hear the gulp he took. “You zink zat zhe Keptain vas dead vhen he was put in zhe bag?” Chekov practically screeched in a thicker than normal accent, nearly hysterical at the thought of his beloved Captain even _possibly_ being dead. 

Spock looked shocked at the implication. “Negative Ensign. That was not the conclusion I was attempting to draw, I was merely implying that it was possible that Frank had either sedated or knocked Jim unconscious before placing him in the bag.” Spock corrected softly. “In fact, seeing as Frank kidnapped Joanna _after_ Jim was last seen, it would be more logical for him to have kept Jim alive since we have assumed that Joanna was kidnapped as a way to control Jim.”

Leonard frowned, his hand clenched down on the PADD that he held at the logical argument that Spock was proposing. Of course it was an argument that was essentially the same as the one Leonard had built up in his head, except his version definitely wasn’t nearly as callous as Spock’s explanation. He didn't think anything he ever said about Jim would ever be callous.

“Spock’s right, kid, there is no way Frank would risk kidnapping a 10 year old that he didn't know and possibly unraveling his plan completely unless he needed her to control Jim. This whole thing has been about Jim from day one.” 

Chekov looked like he was about to cry and honestly Leonard wasn't completely sure that he or anyone else looked any better. “So zhere ees only small chance zhat Frank would keel him, Da?” He whispered quietly. He sounded like he was simultaneously dreading and looking forward to whatever answer he would get.

“As it would only hurt him in the long run and would completely undermine his previous actions, it would only make sense that he not kill Jim.” 

“As much as I hope that Jim is alive and as well as he can be in this situation, we can't really rely on what's _logical_ , Spock.” Pike said with a resigned sigh. 

Spock gave Pike a curious look. “Why is that, Admiral?”

“Because this whole thing is illogical if you actually look at it. He somehow managed to persuade a somewhat highly regarded Admiral to help him break out of prison, knowing full well that we would eventually realise that he had broken out, and instead of disappearing so that he wouldn't be caught again he went straight back to the thing that had caused him to be incarcerated in the first place.” The whole group was watching as Pike paced around in his irritation, they had never seen the normally calm and collected Admiral look so agitated before. “He then kidnapped a Starfleet captain _as well as_ the daughter of another StarFleet officer and proceeded to leave a trail of what might be two bodies in his wake. Nothing about any of that is anywhere near logical.” 

“While you are correct in your statement that Frank’s actions as a whole were illogical it does not change the fact that the individual parts of his plan were logical. He picked an Admiral that was invested in keeping his escape under wraps to help him, he then covered up that evidence by killing said Admiral so that he would be unable to assist us in catching Frank. When he thought that he might be caught due to him running a red light he murdered the police officer that was about to write him a ticket. The steps are gruesome, yes. But one might actually consider them logical steps to take to avoid reincarceration.” 

Spock looked like he was about to continue on and justify the rest of Frank’s decisions but when he opened his mouth to talk he was cut off by the sound of Uhura’s communicator chiming indicating that she had an incoming call. 

Uhura frowned down at the communicator and quickly unclipped it, accepting the call with a flick of the top screen. “Lieutenant Uhura.”

“Aye, lassie! Admiral Pike said ye would be down shortly. It has already been nearly twenty minutes, lass! I cannae bloody keep this shuttle runnin forever! The flight director is already up mah arse about commandeering this lovely ship with nae a single flight plan!”

“Don't fret, Lieutenant Commander Scott. We will be down in a few minutes we merely had to...debate some new information.” 

Scotty harrumphed through the communicator. “Fine. But you cannae blame me when ye are cursed out by the Flight director. The bloody bastard is a right pain in mah arse!”

The line cut off with a decisive click and Uhura flipped the communicator shut and clipped it back onto her side. 

Pike glanced around at them all with a sigh. “Well you heard the man, we need to go ahead and get down to the shuttle bay. The faster we get to Iowa, the faster we can start getting new possible leads on Jim. Time is of the essences ladies and gentlemen and Jim is depending on all of us to help him.” Pike put a hand on Chekov’s shoulder and started to steer him towards the shuttle bay. 

As soon as the Admiral got moving everyone else quickly fell in line behind him.

* * *

“Alright, I have the sheriff of the Riverside Police Department meeting us at the scene where they found Locke’s car.” Pike informed them as they stepped off the shuttle. They had managed to get clearance to land only a minute or two from where they needed to be, instead of having to land all the way back at the police departments landing pad. He stepped off the foothold of the shuttle and turned to motion the crew to follow him down the beaten up gravel path. “We are going to search the car and make sure there isn’t something that we can use to find Frank’s projected path.” 

“Wait.” Sulu started. “I thought we were going to go see this Donald McGareth guy that Frank had on his comm while he was kidnapping Joanna?”

Pike stopped and glanced back at Sulu. “We will be, but I wanted to get to the crime scene first, if we see what kind of damage he did this guy, we might be able to infer what kind of mental state he was in at the time of the murder. The more information, the more pieces of this puzzle we have, the easier it will be to put together, the easier it will be to find out where Frank might be, hopefully.” 

“The Admiral is correct, Lieutenant. Frank already has a substantial lead on us, if fact we have no actual way of knowing how big of a lead he has, as we do not know if he came back to Riverside after kidnapping Miss Joanna or if he simply went somewhere else after leaving Georgia.” 

“Admiral Pike?” A timid looking man asked softly, the look on his face clearly said that he was apprehensive about breaking into the conversation.

Not that anyone would blame him. They all knew they had to look like they were about to go on a murder spree every time Frank was so much as mentioned in their presence.

Pike turned to face the man and offered him his hand to shake as well as a tight smile. “That would be me. Am I to assume that you are Sheriff Mazzola?” 

The Sheriff gave him a shaky smile. “Yes, that would be me. I know you wanted the crime scene preserved exactly how it was found but by time I got here my men had already started cataloging everything. I made sure, however, that they kept everything on or around the scene so you can investigate it yourself. I also have the crime scene photos that were taken before the scene was disturbed, they are all downloaded on these PADDs, so that your people can look at them without having to worry about sharing.” The man quickly handed the PADDs out to everyone before turning back to address Pike again. “If you need anything, anything at all, just let me know and I'll try and get it for you as soon as possible. I want this bastard caught as much as you do.” He said grimly. 

Pike nodded to him and quickly unlocked the PADD in front of him. He took a minute or two to flick through some of the pictures from the crime scene and all around him the senior command crew took the time to do the same. When Pike got to the middle of the photos however, he started frowning. “Why is the scene between the officers body and the actual car different?” He asked the sheriff. 

Mazzola cleared his throat. “Well when we found the car it wasn’t actually _at_ the crime scene, it was found a few minutes away off the side of the road. But since the video showed it was the car that was used in the murder of Officer Janos and it was at the scene of the crime at one point we just went ahead and put it in the report that that was where it was found.”

“So this crime scene is not where the car is?” Uhura questioned with an irritated sigh. It seemed like at every turn someone was doing something wrong that just kept letting Frank slip further and further out of their grasp. 

“No the car is here, well it’s sort of here, this is the halfway point between the two crime scenes, Sir. I wasn’t completely sure that you would only want to see the car or only see the officer's body so I brought us as close as I could between the two.” The sheriff was starting to shift from foot to foot, a nervous look taking over his face at the irritation that was clear on almost everyone's faces. “Like I said, I-I wasn’t completely sure what you would want I, um, I just thought this was the best compromise.” 

Pike waved his hand in dismissal and turned to address the crew. “Alright, Scotty, Sulu and Uhura I want the three of you to go and check out the crime scene of the officers body. You’ll go with a few of the Riverside Police Department officers, I want you to look for anything that might tell us which was Frank was heading, what the hell he was thinking, hell if you could find me a piece of litter on the side of the road that you think might be helpful in figuring out what his next move was, than bring it back.” He ordered sternly, the three of them quickly threw up a salute and marched off to find the police car which would take them back to the other crime scene. 

Pike moved to look at the Sheriff once again, though this time there was irritation in his voice when he addressed the short man. “Now, I need you to take these three men and myself to the car that Frank was driving. You said that you made sure that everything that was inside the car was either taken out and cataloged but still left at the scene or left in the car completely intact without any tampering?”

The Sheriff threw Pike a look that was a mix of barely concealed insubordination and even worse concealed fear. He opened his mouth to answer only to close it at the scathing look Spock of all people shot his way. He cleared his throat and mentally reworded what he was about to say. “Yes, Sir. I made sure that whatever was in the car when I got there, remained there and that everything that had already been removed was left somewhere around the crime scene.”

Pike nodded. “Lead the way then Sheriff.”

The Sheriff turned and motioned over towards a parked police car. “We can use my car to get to the road where the car is, it's on a secluded back road so that we aren't able to use a shuttle.” 

Mazzola and Pike climbed into the driver's and passenger's seat while the other three men attempted to cram themselves into the backseat of the car. Eventually they managed to fit in with Spock behind the driver’s seat, Chekov stuck in the middle and Leonard behind Pike. Leonard was still flipping through the photos of the two crime scenes on his PADD. He had already flipped through them two times.

It took him another two and a half times flipping through them for his mind to finally suss out what wasn’t there. 

“Mazzola.”

The sheriff started slightly, making the car swerve slightly and knocking Chekov into Spock’s side, his eyes bounced over towards Pike before realizing that Pike wasn’t the one who had said his name. 

“Um, Yes Mr…”

“ _Dr_. McCoy.” Pike supplied him tersely.

Leonard ignored the slight and barrelled right on with what he was originally going to ask. “Why is there no photographs of a rolling luggage case.” 

“What luggage case?” Mazzola asked him as he looked back in the rearview mirror at him with confused look on his face. “I didn’t see anything even resembling a luggage case in the photographs.”

“As Doctor McCoy has brought to your attention, the aforementioned photographs are not on these PADDs, however if you read through the copy of the official report logged by an ‘Officer Kareen’ it states that there was a dark purple, rolling luggage case that was found in the trunk of the car.” Spock stated as he pulled up the official report on his PADD. 

The tension in the car was palpable as the Sheriff cleared his throat nervously. All four of the other men in the car were waiting for him to answer. “Um, I, uh, I don’t know, like I said before I wasn’t there when they originally cataloged most of the stuff.” He laughed nervously and avoided the unamused stares that were sent back his way. “I’m sure someone just forgot to put the photos of the bag on the PADDs.” 

Leonard glared at the back of the Sheriffs head, something in the back of his head was seriously doubting this guy's ability to be an actual Sheriff. But he turned his head back to the PADD and started flipping through the photos once again. He wanted and need to make his brain memorise everything. 

It took them nearly ten minutes to get to the nearly deserted back road that the crime scene was on. The whole time you could probably have taken a laser scalpel and cut the tension in the air, it was so thick. 

“Well, uh, he we are gentlemen. Now this is Officer Carr, he’s the one who has been here since we found the car.” Sheriff Mazzola motioned towards an older, slightly fat male officer. Officer Carr, however, wasn’t even looking at Pike, Chekov or Leonard. In fact he didn’t even seem to be focusing on the fact that Mazzola was addressing him or introducing them to him. Instead he was openly _glaring_ at Spock. 

Mazzola had to clear his throat two times before Carr actually managed to tear his eyes off of the half- Vulcan and even then he kept shooting disdainful glances his way. 

“Yeah. I was the one who got the call about the car after the APB went out.” He said gruffly.

Pike sidestepped to put himself between Carr and Spock, trying to keep the Commander out of the officers sight line in the hopes of speeding the conversation along. “Are you the one who catalogued the items inside of the car?”

“Yeah, that was me.”

Pike nodded at him, deigning to go ahead and ask him why the luggage bag wasn’t catalogued later, quickly moving around him and leading the other three men towards the car in the distance. Spock started his search of the car by popping open the truck. Sulu, Pike and Leonard opened the doors of the cars and started rooting around, hoping to find something the officers might have accidentally overlooked. 

They spent a few digging around the car until Chekov finally found something tucked in between the back of the passengers seat and the carpeting of the flooring. “Admiral, I think I hawe found somezing!”

“What is it, Ensign?”

Chekov scrambled out of the car and bounded around the front of it to present a small pill bottle along with an almost pocket sized version of a empty hypospray. “This vas under zhe passenger seat!”

Leonard snatched the empty hypo and the pill bottle out of his hands. He quickly flipped them over in his hands and read the label on the pill bottle before reading the small screen of the hypospray. 

“God Dammit.” He growled. 

“Do you recognize the contents of the hypospray and the pill bottle, Doctor?” Spock asked as he walked up behind them. 

“Of course I recognize them.” Leonard said aggravatedly as he shook his head. “The pills in bottle are the same sedatives that were in his blood when we first scanned him after beaming off of Delvia. The hypo is full of a high, long term dose of medication that when mixed with the sedative and Jim’s shitty immune system would cause disorganized thoughts, massive mood swings and memory problems.” 

Pike frowned at him as he took in the information. “I understand the sedatives, I mean how else would he have been able to keep Jim still long enough to get him out of the apartment but I don’t get why he would give him the other medications.” 

“The disorganized thoughts would make it extremely hard for Jim to formulate an escape plan, the memory loss would also contribute to the unlikelihood of him developing and executing an escape plan.” Spock stated, holding his hand out to Leonard to accept both the hypospray and the pill bottle. “I admit I am not sure as to what purpose the mood swings have, but it is possible that the mood swings were simply a tertiary side effect that he may or may not have even been aware of.” 

“Either way, this means we need to find Jim even faster.” Leonard had a grim look on his face when he leant down to start rummaging through the car again. 

“Doktor, vhy de these medicines mean ve hawe to find him faster. Not zhat I do not vant to find him faster!” Chekov backtracked nervously when he saw the look Leonard shot back at him. 

Leonard frowned and threw a couple of pieces of trash out of the front seat onto the ground and started pulling papers out of the glove compartment. “We need to find him faster because the mixture of those two medications can cause severe problems if they are used in any combination for a long time or used together to often, problems which can escalate to permanent brain damage if they are left untreated. I think we all know that Frank isn’t going to think about what might hurt Jim in the long run.” 

Spock had opened his mouth to ask Leonard more about the possible side effects of the combination of those medication but he was rudely interrupted by the voice of Officer Carr butting into their conversation. “Are you four done tearin’ that car apart?” He called out, half walking and half-waddling his way over towards them from where he had been standing with Sheriff Mazzola. “I already told you that my team took that car apart and catalogued everything in there.” 

“You tore this car apart?” Leonard asked him incredulously, nearly bowling Chekov over when he pulled himself out the car and stormed up to Officer Carr. “If you tore this car apart then why the hell did you not find these?” He asked shoving both the hypospray and the pill bottle right under Officer Carr’s nose. 

“You must have put those there.” Carr argued irritably. He shoved Leonard’s hand right back at him and stepped forward to stand toe to toe with the southern Doctor. “I know my people, there ain't no way that they would miss those kinds of things.” 

Pike put a restraining hand on Leonard’s shoulder and moved him over to the right, taking few a second to whisper to him, “Doctor, we can’t argue with these guys, we need them to give us access to the case they have on the police officer's death, otherwise we won’t be able to see the crime scenes or the photographs.”, then he turned back to the officer who had slowly started getting red in the face. “I’m sorry for him, He is very irritable, we are trying to find a good friend of his and stuff like this, even though it may seem like a very little detail, is very important to us figuring out where this man is taking our friend.” Pike said diplomatically. 

Officer Carr seemed slightly placated by the Admirals tone and took a step or two back, but not before glaring at Leonard who returned it right back with two times the amount of anger. 

“Now, in the official report that one of your colleagues logged there was a oversized rolling luggage bag that was found in the trunk of this car. But we can’t find it in any of the pictures nor can we find it here even though we were told that everything from the car is here.” 

The officer looked startled and scared for a split second, then his face morphed into irritation before finally settling into indifference after another second. “I haven’t seen anything that fits that description. It’s possible that the woman who filed that report might have accidentally added it.” 

Pike quickly answered him when he saw that Leonard had started to open his mouth to offer the man a no doubt scathing retort. “That is what Sheriff Mazzola told us on the way over, but I would still like to talk to the officer who wrote the report, I think her name was Officer Kareen, just to make sure. Like I said, even the little things that may not look like much to you, could mean us finding our friend a lot faster.” 

“Well I hate to say it,” Officer Carr started, sounding a lot like he didn’t hate to say whatever he was about to say at all. “But Officer Kareen has already left for the day and I don’t feel comfortable calling her back when she just left from a nearly 48 hours shift.” 

“Alright, well thank you for your time.” Pike said softly turning to usher all of them back towards the car and then even farther towards the other end of the crime scene where there was a big collection of younger, lower ranked officers. 

Leonard actually grasped Pike’s arm and pulled him to a halt before addressing him. “Why the hell did you thank him?! All he did was flat out fucking lie to us about that luggage bag!” He whisper shouted at Pike, his anger spilling out viciously. 

Pike sighed. “He wasn’t going to give us any more information, McCoy. He would have just kept lying to us and possibly convinced the Sheriff to refuse to let us have access to the files and crime scenes. We technically don’t have any kind of jurisdiction over these things because we can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Frank, after kidnapping Jim, killed the officer. They can argue that the death of the officer had nothing to do with our case and we wouldn’t be able to fight it.” 

Pike started walking again, this time he simply laid a stern hand on Leonard’s shoulder to get him moving once again. When they finally reached the young officers Pike plastered on a somewhat fake but still exceedingly charming smile. “Excuse me?” He said amicably. 

When the officer turned and saw him they immediately straighten up and gave him their full attention. “Hello, I was wondering if you guys could possibly point me in the direction of a Officer Kareen? I really need to talk to her.” 

The officers looked at eachother for a few seconds then one of them nodded at Pike and pointed with his chin towards the line of police cars a few feet away. “She’s over there finishing some of her reports.” 

“Thank you.” 

Leonard grumbled to himself as they walked over to the line of the police cars. In the car farthest from the group of young officers was a young woman, she was sitting in the driver's seat of the car and was working on steadily on a PADD. They all stopped a foot or so from the car and stood there waiting for her to notice them. 

After a minute of standing there Pike finally decided to clear his throat to get the woman’s attention. However, she didn’t seem to hear him at all, since she didn’t even turn to acknowledge them. It took another two times of Pike clearing his throat and then he just sighed and tapped on the side of the car hoping not to startle her too bad like he would if he had went up and tapped her on the shoulder. 

“Excuse me, Miss. I was wondering if you could help us with something?” Pike asked quietly after the woman yelped and jumped nearly a mile in the air when she turned to figure out what had made the tapping noise only to find four men staring at her from a slight distance. 

Officer Kareen quickly scrambled out of the car, knocking her PADD off her lap as she stood up and clambered to straighten out her uniform and stand at attention towards in front of her. 

“Um, of course, Sir! W-What can I do for you, Sir?” She asked as she pushed her glasses back off the end of her nose with the back of her hand.

Pike smiled at her politely and moved back so that he wasn’t standing in her personal space and making her even more nervous. “You were the officer who wrote the report that encompassed this crime scene, were you not?” 

She nodded nervously at him. “Y-Yes I did, Sir.” 

“On the report one of the items you catalogued was a oversized rolling suitcase. I’ve talked to both the Sheriff and Officer Carr but both of them have stated that no such suitcase was either found or catalogued.” 

Officer Kareen looked at him with genuine confusion on her pale face. “B-But Officer Carr was the one who took it after I started cataloguing it?” She stuttered. “I hadn’t even finished inputting it in the case file when he took it from me. I had to go off of the photographs I took of it, so the dimensions might not be completely accurate.”

Spock stepped forward. “Officer Carr took it from you?”

“Y-Yes, he did. He was originally helping me take everything out and catalogue it but he got a phone call when I first found the suitcase in the trunk of the car. When he came back over he took it out of my hands.”

“Did he tell you why he was taking it?” Leonard asked eagerly. “Or better yet, did he tell you where he was taking it?” 

She nodded her head and gestured towards the SUV that Officer Carr had been sitting in when they had first originally drove up with the Sheriff. “He said that he was going to personally finish cataloguing it, but when I went to finalize my part of the report with the catalogues of the other items, I saw that the suitcase hadn’t been logged yet.” She told them, even going so far as to hand her PADD, with the still not fully submitted report on it, to Leonard. “Now, I know Officer Carr is my superior and he’s supposed to always be right, but I thought that maybe he had just forgot about it so I went ahead and put it in to make the case file complete because I didn’t want him to get in trouble for just forgetting to put it in.” 

“Of course, Officer.” Pike cut in with a sympathetic smile. “We understand why you did what you did. But we really need to see that suitcase. Is there anyway you think you could possibly get it out of the car for us?” 

“Sure! I’m pretty sure Officer Carr won’t mind! If you’ll just give me a minute or two I’ll bring it right over.” She said eagerly, soaking up the affirmation like a puppy who’s been told they did a good job. She scampered off towards the black SUV on the other side of the lot, leaving the four of them all on their own.

They all stood back and watched as the woman dug around in the back of the car before she climbed back out of the backseat and jogged around to the trunk. She rummaged around in the trunk and then a few seconds later she was yanking the suitcase out of the trunk. She put it on the ground, pulled the handle up, then started making her way back over to them. 

Officer Kareen pulled it up to Pike and let it slowly roll to a stop in front of him. “Here you go, Sir! Is this the suitcase you were looking for?” She asked him. 

“Yes it is, thank you very much Officer.” 

Pike set the suitcase down on the ground with the front facing the sky and started unzipping it. The inside didn’t truly look like the inside of a suitcase. It was lined with a lavish silk fabric and there was a generous amount of plush cushioning filling it out. On the right side was a small slit in the fabric that was bulging out slightly. 

Pike reached into the slit and wrapped his hand around a cold, hard cylinder. He pulled the cylinder out and held it up for Spock to take it from him. He stayed crouched down on the ground and began feeling around the edges of the lining, hoping to possibly find something tucked in between the fabrics and the cushions. He could hear Spock, Leonard and Chekov discussing the canister behind him when his fingers finally found something.

A small round, metal something, tucked into the upper right corner of the suitcase. 

“Admiral, we are almost completely certain that this canister was full of oxygen. Which only lends more credit to Leonard’s theory that Jim was transported inside the suitcase.” Spock stated to him after a few minutes of deliberation. 

Officer Kareen looked downright horrified at that statement. “Wait, Wait. Are you trying to tell me that someone was _in_ that thing?” 

Pike closed his fingers around the small circular piece of metal and turned back towards the others. “Yes, we are certain that the man who kidnapped our friend had put him in there to transport him from place to place.” He said with a resigned sigh. He stood up and walked towards Leonard with his hand held out. 

Leonard looked at him with a confused look on his face as he looked down at Pike’s closed hand. Slowly he held out his own hand and his face fell when he felt the small band of metal slip from Pike’s hand into his own palm. He took a look down, to find the ring that he had given to Jim during their third year at the academy shortly after their one year anniversary was sitting in the palm of his hand, looking as innocent as the day that he had first bought it. 

“He’s never taken this off before, not since I first gave it to him.” He said breathlessly.

“He took it off so you might know that he had actually been here and been alive when he was here.”

* * *

“I get that we need to see this crime scene to try and figure out Frank’s mindset when the murder happened, but I don’t understand how that is going to help us find Jim!” Sulu said exasperatedly as they walked towards the main part of the crime scene for Officer Janos’ murder. “It’s not like Frank is still here and we already know he only killed Officer Janos because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

“Lad, I’m pretty sure tha Admiral is jus’ trying tah cover all the bases.” 

Uhura nodded along with Scotty. “Pike just wants to make sure we have all the information we possibly can have so that we can find Jim sooner.” 

Sulu threw his hands up in the air and gestured wildly around at the wooded landscape. “How are we going to find Jim sooner out here? He’s not out here. We need to go find this Donald McGareth guy _who actually talked to Frank while he had Jim_ instead of wasting our time out here.” 

Before Sulu was able to continue on his diatribe, one of the officers that was standing behind the crime scene tape came trotting over to greet them. The young man held his hand out to all of them to shake and immediately started leading them over towards the side of the road, where most of the other officers had gathered around the crime scene unit equipment. 

“You must be Lieutenant Commander Scott, Lieutenant Uhura and Lieutenant Sulu. I’m Deputy Alisaar. Sheriff Mazzola said that you would be on your way and that we were to give you whatever you needed. I have already gone ahead and forwarded all of the crime scene photos and the report to your PADDs.” He said, barely even stopping to take a breath, even when they had reached the police car that belonged to Officer Janos. “We just got the video from the traffic light where the car ran the red light, that video along with the one we have from Officer Janos’ dash cam are going to be forwarded to your PADDs within the next few minutes. It always takes a few minutes at least because the download and upload times are always shit out here.”

Alisaar was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet as he showed them around the crime scene while they waited for the videos to finish uploading onto their PADDs. He showed them the cop car, which didn’t hold much, as the murder had happened slightly down the road, though Scotty did break off from the group and start fiddling around with the dash camera that was in place on the car. He stated that he might as well take a look at the video from the original source and make sure that Frank hadn’t tampered with any of the equipment that may have caused something to go wrong with the secondary videos. 

That left Sulu and Uhura following Alisaar around as he showed them where Officer Janos had been shot down, he told them that Janos had been struck in the face shortly before being shot in the temple. 

A soft ding alerted Uhura that the videos had finally finished uploading. “Sulu, how about you watch the traffic cam footage and see if there's any actual views of Frank on the video or if it just managed to catch the outside of the car. I’ll watch the dash camera footage.” 

Sulu nodded at her and turned his PADD on to start up the video. The video didn’t show all that much, starting with a compact black car that was driving slightly recklessly. The car blasted through the red light and seeing it from the camera’s view made Sulu extremely glad that no one else had been at that intersection trying to go through the green light because a crash at that speed would have been devastating. Especially if you have been in a seat with no seatbelt or not in a seat at all like in all likelihood Jim probably would have been. 

Sulu couldn’t understand how Frank managed to get anywhere without anyone noticing him let alone him getting anywhere without somehow being stopped by every cop in Riverside. It was like everyone who worked in law enforcement in Riverside was purposefully looking the other way whenever Frank was around. Hell, it almost felt like everywhere time they found something or went somewhere new to try and find their Captain there was another person who was in cahoots with this bastard. 

How could anyone be willing to associate themselves with this literal piece of scum?

The video continued on to show the police car turning on its lights and racing after Frank’s car, they were barely on screen for a few seconds before they disappeared off in the distance. Sulu sighed and stood up from where he had sat down once the video had started. 

“Uhura.” He called out when he started walking towards her. 

Uhura turned and looked to him while pausing the video she was watching of the police dash cam. “Did you find anything on the traffic camera?” 

He just shook his head, turning the PADD around to show her the beginning of the video, which just showed the back of Frank’s car. 

“Didn’t the camera catch the front of the car?” She asked, taking the PADD and rewinding the video to show it to her again. “Why does the video only start after the car is already past the light? There should have been a camera facing the other way-You know what.” She cut herself off and marched over to where Deputy Alisaar was standing talking to a few other officers. 

“Deputy Alisaar?” 

The dark haired man turned at the sound of his name and walked to meet her halfway with a disarming smile. “Yes, Lieutenant? How can I help?” 

“The video from the traffic camera.” She started as she turned Sulu’s PADD around to face him. “Why isn’t there a camera facing the oncoming direction so that you can identify the driver of the car?” 

His smiled wavered for a second before coming back at almost full force. “Well, there usually are cameras pointing in the oncoming direction but we were forced to just use cameras that only shot the license plates of the vehicles, which means they are pointing at the backs of the cars. It sucks because we can’t even use the videos in court cases against people since they can just say that someone else was driving their car.” 

Uhura frowned and squinted at him. She pulled the video up again and rewinded it to the beginning. She watched it once, then played it again two more times. Uhura turned the PADD back to Deputy Alisaar and hit the play button one more time. 

“Well we need the beginning of this footage.” 

He looked at her with confusion. “Whatever you have on your PADD is the whole amount of footage.” 

“No, it isn’t. If you only have cameras pointing at the back of the cars to catch the license plates then you have cameras on both sides of the intersection to catch the back of the cars going in each direction. Which means whatever camera was taking video for the south side of the intersection should have been facing the oncoming traffic from the north otherwise it wouldn’t be able to see the backs of the cars.” She tried to explain the layout of the camera view but Alisaar was staring at her with the most confused look on his face. 

“I’m not sure I understand what you are saying.” 

Uhura barely managed to resist rolling her eyes at the look on his face. She pulled up a drawing app on the PADD. She drew two sets of lines about an inch apart and then put two little boxes at the middle of each line. Then she labelled the top line as ‘South Bound’ and the bottom line as ‘North Bound’. 

She put a small ‘c’ behind the south bound line and then drew an arrow pointing down towards the north bound line. “Alright. The south bound line signifies the stop light on the south side of the intersection. The north bound line signifies the stop light on the north side of the intersection. Each of the little boxes on those lines signifies the cameras that you have in place to catch the license plates of cars that run the red lights. Are you with me?” She asked.

Once Alisar had given her a nod she continued. She drew two more small arrows in front of each of the little boxes. The one on the south bound line was pointing towards the north stop light and the one on the north bound line was facing the south stop light. 

“Alright, the camera on the north stop light will only catch the license plates of the cars that have crossed the intersection and are heading towards the southern stoplight because it is facing the south. The south stop light camera will only get the license plates of the people heading towards the north.” Alisar gave her another slow nod. “That means that if the man who ran the red light and then killed Officer Janos was driving towards the south then the north stop light camera would have caught his license plate. But the camera on the south bound stop light should have caught his face because it would have been facing the front of the car.”

“Okay, I think I understand what you mean now.” Alisar said, his voice only slightly less confused as he talked to her. 

“Good. We need the footage from the south bound stop light so that we can completely confirm who was driving the car, because we have a suspect in our case already who we are almost certain is the man who killed officer Janos.”

The dark haired man was staring down at her and for a few seconds all he did was twitch his eyes back and forth, like he was trying to think his way out of what Uhura was asking of him. “I can’t give that to you.” 

Sulu cut into the conversation at that, the irritation he and Uhura felt was clear in his voice. “Why the hell can’t you give us the footage? You literally told us when we first got here that you had been told to give us whatever we needed. Don’t you want to figure out who killed Officer Janos?” He asked incredulously.

“Well, I can’t give you those tapes without talking to Sheriff Mazzola first since the technically don’t pertain to this case.” 

Sulu groaned and threw his hands in the air, storming off into the distance back towards the car that Scotty was still sitting in. Uhura rolled her eyes before walking off after Sulu. She had just gotten to the front of the police car when she heard Sulu huff and say ‘At least we have some good news!’. Curious, she stopped at the window of the car and leaned down to where Scotty was fiddling with the console inside the car.

“Scotty, did you find anything?” 

“Aye, lassie. I managed to get a direct line into the Riverside Police Department’s surveillance footage database.”

Uhura cocked her head to the side. “You’ve been sitting here this whole time hacking into the Riverside Police Department? I thought you were watching the dash camera footage.” 

Scotty shot her a look that told her all she needed to know about his mood. “I tried. But that footage dinnae make a lick o’ sense, it looked more like someone was tamperin’ with it before we got here.” 

With a soft sound Uhura climbed into the backseat of the car and pulled out her comm unit. “Are you sure it seems like the footage was tampered with?” 

Scotty nodded at her. With a sigh she typed Spock’s number into the comm unit and hit the call button. A soft tone played while the comm unit attempted to connect to Spock’s, there was a click and then Spock’s monotone voice was filling the car.

“Commander Spock.” 

“Spock, It’s Uhura. Are you guys still at the other crime scene?” Spock gave her an affirmative noise. “I need you to gather Pike, Leonard and Chekov and then go somewhere that there aren’t any police officers.” 

Spock told her to hold on and then the sound of him walking across gravel and alerting the others was heard in the car. A minute or two passed by, which Scotty used to try and hack a little further into the Police Department's Surveillance program, before Spock’s voice came back on the unit. 

“We have travelled out of hearing distance of any nearby officers, what is it that you require?”

“I’m pretty sure the Riverside Police Department is hiding something.”

Leonard’s voice still managed to project its full amount of sarcasm even through the static of the comm. “Really? What could have given you that idea? They’ve been stonewalling us since the second you guys left. They sit there and say ‘oh well we’ll give you whatever you need’ and then turn around and tell you they can’t fucking give it to you or that they don’t even have it!” He screeched. 

Distantly they could hear Pike and Spock hush him to keep him from alerting the police officers of what they were talking about. “Listen Uhura, I want you, Sulu and Scotty to meet us at Donald McGareth’s address. I don’t think we are going to get anymore information out of the police officers until we have more evidence that will get us full jurisdiction over the crime scenes, if we ever get enough evidence for that. Tell whoever it is that is supervising over there that you need to commandeer a police vehicle and we will give it back once we are done with it.” 

“Affirmative, Admiral. We’ll meet you at Donald McGareth’s address.”

“Good. Spock will send it to you once we’ve ended the call.” 

Uhura hung up the call with a soft click. “Well, this was a waste of our time.” She said with a sigh as she opened the message that held Donald McGareth’s address. “You were right, Sulu. We should have just gone to interview this guy.” 

“This isn’t an appropriate time to say I told you so. But I told you so.” Sulu harrumphed while Uhura just rolled her eyes and stepped out of the car to go and tell Alisaar that they needed one of his cars.

* * *

The drive to McGareth’s farm house was done in almost complete silence. Besides the shifting of bodies and the low hum of the few other cars that they had passed, not one of them had uttered even a word. Sulu was focused completely on navigating his way through the multitude of deserted dirt pathways and unattended gravel roads. 

Uhura was sitting in the passenger's seat going back over the dashboard camera’s footage. She had sent it to both Spock and Pike’s PADDs, she had warned them that the footage might be tampered with or incomplete, since that was what Scotty had said. But even if it was tampered with she still needed something to do on the drive over to the farm, she might even be able to tell apart which parts were real and which parts have been tampered with if nothing else.

Scotty was in the backseat of the police cruiser still messing around in the Riverside Police’s Surveillance system. Uhura wasn’t exactly sure _what_ Scotty was doing inside their system but judging from the soft maniacal laughter that rang out over once in awhile it wasn’t something that she actively wanted to know. 

“How much longer until we get to this farm?” She asked without looking up from the PADD, Spock had already sent her back a few messages on where he believed the tampering was placed in the video. 

Sulu hummed softly, quickly calculating the distance they had already gone from the crime scene and how far they still needed to go to get to the farm in his head. “It should only be another minute or two, we have like two more roads to go down before we get to this guy's driveway.” 

The car continued on, thudding and sliding over all the gravel and potholes in the road before finally turning around a bend and the trees lining the road opened up on one side of the road to show them a mailbox. McGareth’s name was etched into the side of the mailbox, letting them know that they were at the right place. 

Sulu turned the car onto a dirt road that was practically consumed by a forest on either side, the gravel driveway was overshadowed with what seemed like an endless stream of oaks and basswoods. They drove for another two and a half miles down the gravel road and then a large brilliant white farmhouse and a two story barn with a small garage behind it finally came into view. 

It was a peaceful scene, but at the same time it seemed almost _sinister_ in how peaceful it was. Almost like when you were in a quiet forest that seemed peaceful right up until you realized it was quiet because there was a predator in your midst. 

Sulu let the car slow to a gentle stop about 500 feet from the bend in the road that would lead them right up to the front of the house. 

When she shot him a questioning look he answered her with a shrug. “We know this guy was involved with Frank _somehow_ but we don’t know how. We already have to wait for the others to get here and I don’t want to let this guy know we are here incase he tries to bolt or something.” He explained with a shrug. “This guys has lived here for god knows how long, he knows the landscape better than us and would be able to get away easily.” 

“Thinkin’ ahead there lad?” 

“Well we just wasted a little under an hour talking to a bunch of asshole cops, I don’t want to waste anymore chasing after some dickhead around on a shit ton of farmland.”

There was a soft rumbling coming from behind them and when Uhura looked back through the rearview window she could see another Riverside Police car rumbling down the road behind them. It pulled up beside them and stopped. Spock stepped out of the driver’s seat while Leonard and Chekov stumbled out of the back seats. 

Pike got out gracefully and walked over to their car, silently motioning for them to get out quickly. 

“I’m assuming the three of you haven’t gone and alerted Donald of our presence?” Pike asked seriously. 

“No, Sir. We’ve just been sitting in the car, we didn’t want to tip him off and have him run.” 

Pike nodded. “Good thinking. Let’s take this slow, don’t let him know we are investigating Frank yet.” He said sternly, turning to walk down the gravel road the rest of the way towards the house. 

They walked down the road, keeping their eyes forward on the house to make sure that Donald wasn’t peeking through the windows or bolting out a back door into the wilderness. 

“Admiral, do we have any background information on this individual?” Spock questioned as they walked. 

“We know that he has lived in Riverside his whole life, all 46 years of it, he also went to school with Frank. There’s a few years after he graduated high school that he went off the grid and didn’t have any jobs or pay any taxes that we know of. When he was 24 his mother passed away and he inherited the family farm, the address we are at currently, as well as a small fortune. After that his taxes only state that he paid property taxes but that he supposedly didn’t have a job.” Pike said. “Other than that? We don’t know anything about this guy.” 

Pike walked through the small white gate that shielded the front of the house. He walked confidently straight up to the front door and rung the doorbell. They all stood behind him on the small stone pathway, they could vaguely hear the sound of something clanging to the floor followed by a few footsteps. 

A soft curse preceded the door being yanked open and a tall, athletically built middle aged man glaring out at them with an aggravated look on his face. There was a livid bruise on the bottom of his chin and he had a bandage wrapped around one of his hands. 

“Who the hell are you?” He asked irritably as he leaned against the door frame. 

Pike decided to forgo his usual diplomatic smile and instead settled for a grim frown as he stepped up closer to the man. “Hello Sir, I’m Admiral Pike. My colleagues and I are investigating a disappearance of a well regarded StarFleet Captain.”

“What does that have to do with me?” 

“Well, we believe that the kidnapper may have taken the man he kidnapped through this area and we’ve been asking all of your neighbors if anyone had seen either of them.” 

Donald rolled his eyes at the answer. “I haven’t seen my own neighbors in a week all the way back here, let alone someone who kidnapped another person.” He turned and took a step back into the farmhouse while moving to close the door shut behind him. 

Uhura quickly threw on the most charming smile she could muster up and stepped up next to Pike. “If you could just give us a second maybe we could describe them, you might not remember it now but perhaps if you were to hear what they looked like it might jog your memory.” She said, letting her desperation leak into her voice, hoping that maybe if she endeared him to her he would talk more. 

But Donald just snorted and went back to shutting the door while talking to her. “Sweetheart, you are not my type so you can knock that look off your face and for the record I’m pretty sure I would remember if I saw someone who had kidnapped someone. Now get the hell off my doorstep and leave me alone.” 

He slammed the door shut behind himself and they could hear his footsteps fading away into the house just like they did when he was coming to the door. Pike turned back to them with a sigh and stepped down the porch steps. “We need a different plan of attack.” He looked around at all six of their faces. “Anyone got any suggestions?” 

Chekov raised his hand, waiting until Pike gave him a nodd before continuing. “Maybe ve can tell him ve saw him talking to Frank on zhe communicator.” 

Pike shook his head and scrubbed a hand over his face. “No. I don’t want to use that information until we get him to give in and let us into his house to talk or as an absolute last resort if we are wasting too much time trying to convince him to let us in.” 

“We should tell him that the kidnapper was Frank. Maybe if he hears it was someone he knew he might be a little bit more inclined to talk to us?” Uhura suggested softly. “He might think that by giving Frank up as being around but not actively admitting that he was a part of the plan, he would be saving himself. You know, take the heat away from himself by saying that he only saw Frank hanging around.” 

Pike took a minute or two to contemplate the suggestion, humming slightly to himself as he mulled the idea over. “Any other ideas before I go with that one, guys?” 

“We could just shove our way in. We all know he helped Frank. Why else would Frank call him in the middle of kidnapping my daughter?” Leonard hissed out angrily, looking like he was only a few seconds away from running up those steps and kicking the door down himself to interrogate Donald. “We’ve already wasted too much time with those damned cops who basically gave us nothing.” They could all see the tension in his body as he absently fiddled with the ring he had gotten back when they found that luggage case. 

There was sympathy in Pike’s eyes when he looked at Leonard. “You know we can’t do that. Even if we wanted to, which I’m pretty sure we all want to, if we went in there guns blazing without either his permission or a search warrant we’d be screwing ourselves. Anything we find, especially if it’s something that we could use in a trial against Frank or him in particular, would be rendered inadmissible.”

Leonard huffed and turned away at that. He desperately wanted to just attack Donald, hell he really just wanted to attack every person in the world who have even so much as looked at his Jim the wrong way. The only thing that had made this day in any way better was the fact that he had found Jim’s ring. It meant that Jim had tried to give them a way to follow his trail, it meant that Jim was still alive when he went into that dreaded suitcase. It meant that there might be some chance at finding him. 

Pike opened his mouth, possibly to try and give Leonard some kind words but he decided against it and instead turned back to walk up the front steps once again. This time Chekov, instead of Uhura, decided to push his way up next to him. Everyone knew exactly why Chekov had decided to step up, since it was clear in the way Donald had dismissed Uhura, that he was more Donald’s ‘type’ than anyone else that was there.

It was a disgusting thought, but it was one they couldn’t really deny might be true. Anything that might help them find Jim would be worth a few minutes of degradation or being demoted down to just being eye candy for a possible pedophile. 

When Pike paused to look over at Chekov with a questioning look Chekov just leaned over in front of him and pressed the doorbell once again. After a few seconds of silence, with no moment at all from inside the house, Pike reached over, pressing it again and again until a loud curse met the sound of the ring. 

The door was once again violently thrown open almost like McGareth had been waiting for them to ring the doorbell a second time and this time Donald appeared in the doorway with an absolutely livid look on his bruised face. 

“I thought I told you to leave!” He ground out, his eyes were solely focused on Pike, pointedly ignoring Chekov. 

Chekov, of course, didn’t let that stop him. He stepped up a bit closer to Donald, cutting across slightly in front of Pike so that Donald would have to see him and plastered a blinding but somehow still shy smile onto his face. It was a smile that looked surprisingly like Jim when you paired it with the blond ringlets and the bright blue eyes that Chekov possessed. 

“If you vould just giwe us a minute of your time, sir?” Chekov started timidly as he laid a hand on Donald’s bandaged hand which had moved to start closing the door again. “Ve vould appreciate it wery much.” 

Donald’s mouth twitched, like he was desperately trying to hold himself back from saying something, but before he could blurt out what was going through his mind he managed to get a hold of himself. “Fine, you can talk to me for a minute or two but that’s it. But like I said before I haven’t seen anyone who might have kidnapped a StarFleet Captain.” 

Pike stepped up further to enter the house, only to be stopped by Donald’s other hand on his chest. “I said you could talk to me, not that you could come into my home.” 

Pike cleared his throat with a nod and slowly stepped back down, though his eyes didn’t leave where Chekov’s other hand had moved to clutch around Donald’s wrist. 

“Yes, well we have more than sufficient evidence that the man who kidnapped the StarFleet captain was Frank Burkoff.”

Donald’s head shot up and he leveled Pike with a horrific glare. He grimaced, moving to stand up to his full height and stare down at Pike. “I don’t know anyone by that name. So I wouldn’t know who to look for, now I think your few minutes are up.” He growled up after he managed to school his face away from the angry expression that had formed on his face. 

He snatched his hand back from Chekov’s and stormed back into his house, slamming the door shut behind him. 

“Well, fuck.” Pike sighed when he turned back to the officers behind him. “Guess we will have to wait until he realizes we aren’t leaving until he talks to us.” 

Sulu tilted his head to the side and sent a look towards Chekov, who had a downtrodden expression on his face. “Well he said to get off his front steps, not that we couldn’t hang around and look through his land.” He said slyly. “Of course, we can’t look in any of the buildings on his property, because we don’t have a search warrant, but whatever we might find just out in the open that might give us probable cause to get a search warrant is technically fair game.” He continued when he saw that Pike was about to interrupt him, no doubt to go off about how if they went into any of his buildings then anything they would find would be inadmissible. 

“Technically, you are right.” Pike conceded. 

Chekov nearly skipped down the stairs and pulled Sulu off the stone path by his arm, eager to try and find something that could get them inside that man’s house.

* * *

“Zis ees bullshit!” Chekov groaned as he stomped around. He and Sulu had already traversed around the outside of the barn _twice_ looking for any kind of evidence that they could use to further their search for Jim. But so far they had found nothing. And by nothing they meant _nothing_. They hadn’t even found so much as a blade of grass out of place. 

Which at a normal house in a rural development wouldn’t have really raised an alarm, so many people in developments kept their lawns immaculate to keep up with their neighbors. But on a farm? That actually had a few livestock and horses? It was practically unheard of for the ground to not be trampled to just dust, at least around the barn where the livestock would walk in and out, there wasn’t even a single footprint leading to or from the house or barn. 

“Maybe we aren’t looking around far enough?” Sulu asked thinking out loud.

Chekov looked at him in confusion. “Vhat do you mean ‘ikaru?” 

“Think about it. If you had dealt with someone who had kidnapped someone, especially if you also took part in either the kidnapping or the harboring of the kidnapped party, you would want to hide the evidence.” He pondered. “And if you thought that there was a good chance someone might come sniffing around because they knew you were involved you might try to hide the most obvious evidence.”

“Like any ewidence that might be around zhe most obwious buildings?” 

“Exactly!” Sulu said. “So he might have had the time to clear up any obvious evidence around the house and the barn but he might not have gotten to anything that was farther out. Like around, let's say, the driveway?”

Chekov nodded along with him as he explained what he meant. “Frank vould hawe had to park his car somevhere.” 

The two of them trotted back around the barn to the front of the house, the others were still sitting in various places on the stone steps and pathway directly in front of the house while Pike was constantly ringing the doorbell. Chekov gave Uhura and Scotty a downhearted wave when they looked over at him questioningly, the same way they had looked at them whenever they made their way past the front of the house. 

They made their way towards the dirt pathway that made up McGareth’s driveway. They scoured the edges of the dirt circle and then crisscrossed across the middle of the circle. Sulu walked around the sides of the cars that they had parked when they had first arrive. 

Chekov watched as the asian man stopped, tilted his head, and stared down at the ground. “Vhat is it ‘ikaru, did you find somezing?” 

“I think so. There’s another set of tire tracks in the dirt.”

“Are you sure zhey aren’t from our cars?” 

Sulu shook his head. “No, I can clearly see the ones that our car made but there is another set of tire tracks that’s like three or four inches to the left of the ones we made.” Sulu pinched the thighs of his pants and pulled them up so that he could kneel down on the dirt to get a closer look at the tire tracks. “Yeah, the tires tracks are definitely different, they are wider and it must have been a heavier car because they’ve made a deeper impression in the dirt.” 

Chekov looked down at him, leaning down to join in investigation the tracks, what Sulu said was obvious as he looked down into the dirt. “Should I go tell Admiral Pike?”

“No, not yet. For all we know this might not be anything, just go ask Spock for the car keys so we can move this car and see if there we can get a clearer look at these tracks.”

Almost before Sulu could finish his sentence, Chekov was already bounding off towards the house. Sulu watched as he slowed to a walk and stopped in front of Spock, he obviously couldn’t hear what Chekov told Spock but he saw Spock pull out the car keys and hand them to Chekov before Chekov turned and started running towards Sulu. 

“‘Ere you are ‘ikaru!” He called out as he tossed the keys to Sulu. 

Sulu unlocked the car and clambered into the driver's seat, not even taking the time to close the door behind him as he threw it in reverse and pulled out backwards, trying his hardest not to disturb the tracks that were underneath the car. He pulled back nearly ten feet, parking and then getting back out of the car. 

“ ‘ikaru? There vas somezing under zhe car.” Chekov yelled back, he was kneeling in the patch of dirt that would have been right under the engine compartment of the car. Chekov stood up, holding a small black rectangle in his hands. 

Sulu jogged over to him and silently held his hand out for the rectangle, which turned out to be a wallet. He took a second to glance up at Chekov, shooting him a hopeful smile. He sucked in a deep breath and held it as he opened the wallet. 

Inside was Frank Burkoff’s drivers license. 

Sulu released the breath in a short gasp, looking down at the wallet, two, three, times to make sure his mind wasn’t tricking him into see whatever he wanted to see, but no there it still was. 

Proof that Frank had been here and seeing as the wallet had barely any dust or dirt on it even though it was lying on the dirt meant that it had been there recently otherwise it would have gotten trampled on or driven over. 

“Vhat is it?” Chekov asked him excitedly after studying the astonished look that had settled over his features. “Is it somezing useful?” 

“It’s Frank’s wallet.” He told him, a smile lighting up his face. “This might be enough for Pike to justify us storming Fort McGareth over there!” 

“Is zhere anything else in et?” 

Sulu pulled the driver's license out of the small laminated pocket that it was in. Behind it was a plethora of evidence against Frank, because behind that driver's license was Jim’s StarFleet ID along with a certified copy of the keycard that would have opened Jim’s temporary apartment back in San Francisco. 

But there was even more things that they could use against Frank in the rest of the card slots on the other side of the wallet. Admiral Locke’s ID and keycard to his office were in the top slot along with Officer Janos’ police ID tucked into the slot under that. There was also a small folded up piece of paper in one of the other slots.

Sulu bypassed the folded piece of paper to look at the last ID in the wallet. “Katie Bensler? Does Jim know anyone named Katie Bensler?” 

“Not zat I am aware of, maybe Leonard vould know?” 

“We’ll have to ask him, he’s only taken the ID’s of people he has had contact with so it’s entirely possible that she also might be helping Frank with kidnapping or keeping Jim.” Sulu said absently as he pulled out the folded up piece of paper and deftly unfolded it to a full sized piece of old style paper. 

On it was a bunch of different addresses, one of which Sulu recognized as being the address for Jim’s apartment in San Francisco and another one he thought might have been either Locke’s apartment or Locke’s office because the address was in StarFleet’s general head quarters area. There was a third address that was probably Joanna’s school, since the area code showed that the address was somewhere in Georgia, and it did look familiar to Sulu. There also was another Georgia address but they would have to ask Leonard about it.

“Alright, Pavel. We need to go get this stuff to Pike. Hopefully this will be enough for him to get a search warrant for all of Donald’s buildings.” 

“Maybe it vill be enuff to arrest him? He vould be more open to talking if he vas arrested.” Chekov said excitedly, grabbing Sulu’s hand to start trying to drag him back over to the house. 

Sulu let him drag him back towards the house, while he was being dragged he quickly stuffed all of the ID’s back into the wallet so that they wouldn’t get dropped or lost on the way over. Once they got to the small picket fence and the stone path that led up to Donald’s doorstep, the whole of the crew looked over at them, shooting them collectively confused looks when they saw the bright look on Chekov’s face. 

“Did the two of you find something?” Pike asked them when they bounded up in front of them. 

Chekov nodded enthusiastically and pointed to Sulu with one hand while shoving him forward with the other. Sulu stumbled slightly at the push and then practically shoved the wallet into Pike’s hands in a rush to get it to him. 

Pike fumbled slightly with the leather wallet as it hit his hands. “What is this?” 

“It is Frank’s wallet.” Sulu said. 

“You are _sure_ this is his wallet?” Pike leveled Chekov and Sulu with a stern glance.

Sulu and Chekov nodded quickly. “We found it in the dirt underneath one of the police cars while we were searching around the property. That’s why we needed the keys from Spock earlier.” 

Pike nodded at the explanation and opened the wallet. Much like Sulu had done, he gasped out slightly when he saw the contents. Everyone else quickly stood up from the various seats they had taken while waiting for Pike to deal with McGareth when Pike gasped.

“Admiral?”

“What is it?”

“Is it something we can use?” 

“Can we get a search warrant and go after this motherfucker yet?” They all asked at once nearly clambering over themselves and each other in their haste to corral around Pike and see what Sulu and Chekov had found. 

Pike held up a hand to stop the flood of questions. “I’ll have to call the other Admirals real quick and see if they can expedite me a search warrant for his home and his barn, since this at the very least shows that Frank _was_ here.” 

He paused and picked out both the folded up piece of paper and the license that belonged to Katie Bensler. “Sulu, Chekov, I want you two to go to this address and track down this Katie Bensler woman. Given that all of the other ID’s are from people who we either know helped Frank or happened to be Frank’s victims I want to know which one she was. Take Scotty and Uhura with you for backup, just in case Frank is either still there or goes back there.” 

Spock made an inquisitive noise as he turned to Pike. “Should we not alert the police of our intention to go to this woman's house? They could provide assistance if we truly believe that the four of them might encounter Frank at this house.” 

Pike gave a quick but decisive shake of his head after taking a few seconds to think. “No, the police haven’t been at all helpful, in fact they have seemed more like they are covering for Frank than trying to stop him. I don’t want to take the chance that they get their first and try to hide any evidence we might need.” 

“Or if they find Frank and Jim there they might just let him go and take Jim with him.” Leonard growled out angrily. “Hell, for all we know one of those bastards has already seen him! Or, they might have told McGareth that we were in Riverside investigating and he could have moved Frank before we even got here!” 

Surprisingly enough it was Spock who laid a hand on Leonard’s shoulder to reassure him. “We will find Jim and Joanna and we will find Frank.” He said softly, his voice uncharacteristically tender. “We will not stop until we do.”

“I know we’ll find them! That’s not what I’m worried about!” Leonard moaned. 

“Then what are you worried about, if not us not being able to catch up to Frank and find Jim and Joanna?”

Leonard slumped down to sit on the ground, he sighed and fisted some of the grass underneath him. “What if we don’t get there in time? How much abuse is Jim going to be able to take before he breaks? How long can my daughter be with that maniac before he hurts her or causes irreparable damage to her psyche?” He asked quietly, almost like he was talking more to himself than he was to them. 

All of them looked at Leonard with sympathy in their eyes, they all loved their captain but none of them loved him the way Leonard did and the longer they were stuck looking for Jim and the more dead ends they kept finding, the more brokenhearted Leonard was starting to look. It hurt them beyond belief to see one of their own so hurt, almost as much as it hurt to think about what Jim could be going through or what he already had gone through. 

Pike turned to Chekov and Sulu. “You guys go ahead and find this ‘Katie Bensler’, if you can, bring her back here so I can help oversee any interrogation, if you can’t get her to leave or to let you into her home, call me and I will figure something out.” He said quietly as he ushered them down the steps. 

“Make sure Leonard is okay.” Uhura whispered to him as she passed by him and Spock. 

Spock and Pike both just nodded at her with somewhat grim looks on their faces. They watched as the other four officers got in the police car that they had came in and they kept watching until they could no longer see the car due to the distance and the overhanging trees. Then Pike turned back to kneel beside Leonard, hoping to give him what ever semblance of reassurance that he could muster. Even if the fears that were bouncing around in Leonard’s head were echoed tenfold in his own. 

Jim had disclosed all but one year's worth of abuse to him after the whole Delvia incident, while he had told him that he hadn’t told Leonard everything because he didn’t want Leonard to look at him differently after he learned the extent of what he had gone through.

* * *

Spock looked over at where Pike was sitting next to Leonard, trying to comfort the doctor as much as he could given the circumstances. It wasn’t working, for obvious reasons, but Spock truly couldn’t fault Pike for trying. 

Maybe before he had started working on the Enterprise, he might have questioned the point of trying to comfort an obviously overly emotional man but ever since he had began working in close quarters with Jim, after working with the whole senior crew of the Enterprise really, he had seen the errors in his own thinking. 

No Vulcan would ever think to comfort Doctor Mccoy and they definitely wouldn’t think his ‘breakdown’ was logical either. He however, wasn’t completely Vulcan. The fact that he wasn’t fully Vulcan was something that he hadn’t been able to come to terms with until he had met Jim, and even then it had taken quite a bit of time before he was able to embrace his human half even a little bit without dealing with how ‘illogical’ it might be for him to do so. 

Nevertheless, Jim had slowly managed to draw him out of his logical shell, more so than even Uhura was able to in the first year or so of their relationship. 

As much as he wished to say that he had been completely calm and collected when he realized that something might be wrong with Jim, he couldn’t. Not even by a long shot. When Jim had failed to show up at the last set of meetings he had felt his heart rate pick up in his side. It was still a common joke among the senior crew that Jim constantly shirked his duties off onto Spock, but everyone truly knew that Jim actually did all of his own work and took his captain’s duties very seriously. The fact that he was even _late_ to a admiralty meeting by ten minutes was not only unheard of, it did in fact give ample cause for Spock to be mildly concerned. 

When he had called Leonard, on the off chance that Jim had decided to neglect his duties in light of Locke’s attempted molesting, it had been with slim expectancy of Jim actually having met up with Leonard. And when Leonard had stated that he had not even heard from Jim that whole day, that was what had made Spock pause. It was also what made his heart rate pick up enough for him to feel his own pulse in his neck. 

It was only once he stepped in the meeting hall to inform Admiral Pike of the fact that Jim had not arrived and had not answered any of his multiple comm calls that a sense of dread had started to build up in the back of his mind. A sense of dread which had only been compounded when he registered the fact that Admiral Locke was also not in attendance. 

He had had to quell that rising sense of dread so that he would be able to explain the situation to Admiral Pike, who of course, quickly caught onto his hidden realization. In fact Spock had been surprised by how quickly Pike had jumped to the same conclusion about both Jim and Admiral Locke’s absences. 

However, it was when they had both arrived at Jim’s apartment and still had not received any kind of answer, even from their ringing of the call chime, that they comprehended something more sinister may have happened. Once they had gained access to his apartment that little bit of dread that had built up in the back of his mind had _refused_ to be ignored any longer, only compounded by the mess that had been made in Jim’s apartment. 

To anyone who didn’t truly know Jim, the clutter and mess might be normal for a young twenty something male. But to those who did know Jim? People like Spock and Pike? Those people knew that Jim was a bit of a neat freak. Not in the conventional sense of a neat freak but he was a bit of a neat freak all the same. 

Or at least he was a fan of ‘organized chaos’ as he called it. 

The mess in his apartment was indicative of someone else having been through his rooms or something bad having happened. Once Leonard had called him back to alert him of his daughter being kidnapped that dread morphed itself into full blown fear and anxiety. It hadn’t shown on his face at that moment and he had tried valiantly not to let it show at any other time during the investigation. Instead, that fear and anxiety had taken root in his mind and kept churning around and around, making him think of the worst possible scenarios which was then only inflamed by every piece of evidence they managed to find. 

Spock once again turned to look at where Pike was still sitting next to Leonard. Leonard looked considerably better than he had been looking ever since he had the realization that both Jim and his daughter had been taken by Jim step-father, but he still looked horrible. He was still twirling Jim’s ring around in his hand and his face still looked completely downtrodden. 

Spock cleared his throat softly, desperately trying to quell the sudden rush of emotion that seeing one of his friends,though he and Leonard seldom actually admitted to being friends, hurting brought back to the forefront of his brain. A part of him, which definitely reminded him of his mother, wanted to comfort his friend. He had tried earlier but comforting people had always been one of the only things he was downright bad at. 

The thought of comforting Leonard reminded him of the fact that before their three weeks of shoreleave had begun Jim had been trying to help him figure out an easier way to show his emotions without completely dismantling his painstakingly built Vulcan side. 

A thought that in turn only made his heart beat a bit faster and the aching wound in his head feel quite a bit bigger. 

As looking upon Leonard and Pike only made him want to storm McGareth’s home like a, ‘knight in shining armor’ as Leonard himself would say, he instead decided to turn back towards the front door of said home. 

He was the only person still at McGareth’s home, besides Leonard for obvious reasons, that had not at all tried to convince Donald to allow them to come inside his home. Pike had already convinced the other Admirals that Donald was a key suspect in Jim’s kidnapping but he had alerted Leonard and Spock of the fact that it could still be an hour or three before the warrant was not only signed but also delivered to them. 

Time that they and by default Jim and Joanna, might not have. 

None of them had any true way of knowing what Frank was doing to them. 

Squaring his shoulders and straightening himself up to his full height Spock walked up the steps and bypassed the doorbell, which had already been rung a multitude of times, to knock on the door firmly. 

Once no one came to the door after nearly three minutes, which he kept count of in his head, he raised his hand and knocked again. This time adding another three firm knocks while making sure they were loud and clear so Donald could hear them regardless of where in the house he was. 

When that still did not warrant a response he stopped, took another deep breath and knocked again, this time he refused to relent in his knocking until he heard the barest sounds of footsteps on hardwood floor. Thankful that he could stop literally beat on the wooden door with his sensitive hands, he lowered his hand and simply stood at attention, waiting for McGareth to make his way to the front door. 

With a creak the door opened to reveal the irritated visage of Donald McGareth, a snarl already making its home on his lips as he took only half a step out of the doorway. “Why the hell won’t you idiots leave already! I told you I don’t know anyone named Frank Burkoff or Jim Kirk!”

Spock tilted his head at that sentence. “I was simply going to implore that you allow us into your home to answer a few questions of your own volition. But now I feel compelled to ask, if you do not know Frank Burkoff, how would you know Jim Kirk. Or better yet, how would you know that both of those names would be pertinent in the same investigation.”

Donald looked at him with a look of confusion for a second and Spock could pinpoint the exact second his mind registered his error. The dark haired man's face twisted and he desperately tried to backtrack his way through the conversation as if he hadn’t just stumbled and revealed far too much information. “I - You -You told me before that the investigation was about a man named Frank Burkoff. That he allegedly kidnapped a Starfleet Captain named Jim Kirk.” He stuttered out, his eyes bouncing all around Spock’s head instead of looking directly at his scrutinizing gaze. 

“As I stated previously, I was simply going to implore you allow us to enter your home. I did not state any names of any suspects or any victims in this investigation.” 

“W-Well your Admiral did, earlier!” He argued back. 

Spock tilted his head to the side in a gesture that Jim always told him looked particularly unimpressed and intimidating. “Admiral Pike,” He emphasized, “Stated only that we had sufficient evidence to accuse Frank Burkoff as our main suspect in this investigation. Not once has anyone you have spoken to even alluded to Jim Kirk as being a part of this investigation.” 

Spock watched the man’s adam’s apple bob as he took a hard swallow. “Jim Kirk is a famous captain! Your Admiral said himself that it was a well regarded captain that went missing.”

“Once again, as I previously stated, not one person has even mentioned Jim Kirk’s name in the context of this investigation, as such there is no reason for you to assume that I would come to your home to ask you if you have seen him. Furthermore we did not ask if you had seen the victim, we merely asked if you had seen Frank Burkoff.”

Donald paused for nearly a minute, obviously scrambling to find an excuse. Meanwhile Spock leveled him with a look he knew was not condescending, because his vulcan training wouldn’t allow for such a show of emotion, however to a human it would be the peak of condescending. 

It did however, only take those scant sixty seconds of silence for Spock’s hearing to pick up whatever was playing in the background inside Donald’s house. Spock hadn’t been able to hear it when McGareth had first come out because the man had immediately started talking. And before that whenever Pike had gotten him to answer the door, Spock had been too far away or to focused on the conversation at hand to truly listen for any background noise. 

But when that background noise finally registered? 

Spock could _feel_ the blood drain from his face. 

And it was obvious that McGareth could also see the blood draining from his face because his face showed sheer panic and then he was turning and slamming the door in his face. 

Spock barely contained a shudder and turned to swiftly make his way over to Admiral Pike and Leonard. He somehow managed to stop short of running into the admirals back. “Admiral.”

“Hold on, Spock.” Pike said distractedly as he kept his gaze focused on Leonard. 

“Admiral, this can not wait.” Spock started again, this time his voice breaking on the last words of that sentence. 

The sheer emotion in his voice, _no_ , the sheer _rage_ that was present in his voice was what made the older man look up. When Pike did finally take in the look on his face, the vehement outrage and fury that Spock had no doubt was swimming in his eyes and written into every line of his face, caused him to immediately stand up. 

He had narrowly begun to look at him with a question on his lips before Spock interrupted whatever he had been about to say. “When Donald McGareth paused during our conversation I managed to hear a snippet of what he had been listening to in his home while we have been attempting to gain entrance. It was a person's voice.” Spock had to pause for a second to regain some small semblance of composure lest he take his wrath out on the men in front of him. “It was - It was _Jim’s_ voice.” 

Pike was giving him a flabbergasted look, after a few second of Pike not saying anything Spock started talking again. “Admiral I _need_ your permission to enter that man's home, without a search warrant, as you are the only one here with the authority to say that we had probable cause due to exigent circumstances.” Pike still seemed to be stuck by his shock. “ _Admiral_! Donald McGareth could be destroying vital evidence or harming Jim _right now_.”

_That_ got Pike moving and he quickly nodded motioning Spock towards the door while he whipped out his communicator. “Take the door down if you need to.” He said hurriedly. “I’m going to call Admiral Barnett and let him know why we are going to bust down a man’s door without a warrant in our hands.”

Spock turned back to the door, pointedly ignoring Leonard as he stood up and settled himself at Spock’s flank. He strode up to the door and used the momentum of his walking stride to plant his foot right next to the doorknob, the force of the strike causing the lock on the door to crack and break. The door flew open slamming against the inside wall with a loud _CRACK_. 

Both Spock and Leonard rushed inside, frantically glancing around to find where Donald had fled to. As they darted down the hallway, Jim’s voice kept getting louder going from nearly a talking level up to a loud shout of pain. When that shout turned into a scream they began running through the house. 

Finally they found what must have been a living room and in that living room was McGareth. He was desperately attempting to stop a recording that was playing on his comm unit. But in his haste, he was actually just skipping around in the recording. 

Spock basically threw himself over a couch that was in his path, yanking McGareth straight out of his chair and throwing him nearly across the room in an attempt to keep him from deleting anything that might be pertinent evidence. 

Leonard swiftly sat down in the desk chair, putting a fast stop to whatever program had been activated to try and delete the videos that were currently up on the screen but he was unable to stop the actual video itself. Pike rushed into the room shortly after them, hurriedly talking on the phone to whom Spock could only guess as Being Admiral Barnett as that was who he had said he was going to call.

“Yes, Richard, I know!” Pike shouted haltingly into the comm unit. “What other choice did we have! No, I didn’t have the time to wait for a courier to bring a fucking piece of paper to me from San Francisco.”

Pike growled in irritation. “Would have rather us wait outside? Should we have let him destroy all of the evidence we could have gained? Maybe we should have just let him walk out the backdoor and off into the sunset solely because we didn’t have something signed by a judge! You already told me that the judge signed the warrant, that means we have the right to search whatever the warrant describes.” He hissed. “When the warrant gets here I’ll show it to him and I’ll make sure that Spock reads him his rights but I couldn’t just stand by and let him give Frank another inch of leverage over us.”

Spock rounded on McGareth, who had been previously cowering in the corner but now he was slowly trying to inch his way towards another door in the corner of the room. When he realized that Spock had turned his attention back to him, he started staring at him with true fear in his eyes.

* * *

Sulu sighed in irritation as he steered the police car down the road. He had been tempted to just throw on the siren and lights so that he could easily bypass any traffic that got in his way. Because in his mind time was severly of the essence. But Uhura had shot that idea down almost immediately. 

She said that the admiralty probably wouldn’t like it if they got caught driving around Riverside in a police car that they _technically_ shouldn’t have possession of and normally he would agree with Uhura, but the admiralty wasn’t exactly in his good graces anymore. 

Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure who, besides Pike, on the board of admirals he would consider trustworthy. They weren’t exactly his favorite people in the world normally and their mild disregard for this investigation didn’t exactly endear them to him more.

Especially not when that mild disregard came in the form of not really seeming to care when their most famous captain goes missing. 

All in all, Sulu wasn’t really going to filter the admiralty into his decisions.

“Lad, are ye just goin’ ta keep sighin e’ry few minutes?” Scotty questioned from the backseat next to Chekov. 

Sulu nodded sarcastically with a smile. “Yes. Yes, Scotty, I am in fact going to keep sighing until the things we are dealing with start to make some semblance of sense.” 

“Boys, we don’t have time to be arguing with each other. We have a job to do.” Uhura cut in sweetly. 

“Yeah, well we are only driving right now, so I think I’m okay until we actually find where this lady lives.” 

Uhura pursed her lips at the condescending tone to his voice. 

Sulu took one look at her facial expression and released a long, drawn out sigh that sounded like it came from deep in his lungs. “I know. I know, I’m being an asshole. I just am so tired of hitting dead ends and dealing with cops who are so clearly hiding stuff from us. We haven’t really even gotten any closer to finding him.” 

Chekov leaned forward with a hand on each back rest and smoothly interrupted Sulu’s tirade. “Ve found zhe vallet did ve not, Da?” 

Sulu glanced back at the young Russian before quickly turning back to focus on the road after a soft smack on the chest from Uhura. “Yeah, but where has that gotten us? We confirmed once again that Frank was the one who kidnapped Jim, something we had already known since it was caught on camera. Next? We sort of confirmed that he killed Locke by finding Locke’s ID and keycard, once again something we already knew. We confirmed he killed Officer Janos; something we practically already knew despite the fact that the cops basically obstructed justice to keep us from confirming it.” 

Sulu took a slow breath before starting up again. “We might have found this Katie Bensler lady, but for all we know he only had the ID as insurance against her and he hasn’t actually used her yet and we don’t even know if she’ll be home. Once again for all we know she could have gotten the hell out of dodge! Fucking McGareth could have tipped her off as soon as he realized that we were investigating Frank.” 

“Sulu, how about we try not to write anything off as worthless until we at least actually find where we are going.” 

“You said that when we went to the police about Officer Janos’ murder! I even said I told you so when Pike took us away from that because we weren’t getting anywhere and neither were they!” He yelled, hitting his hand against the steering wheel to emphasize his point. “So far we’ve hit a dead end every single time we’ve gotten a single clue and even then every single clue has told us something we already fucking knew; Frank Burkoff kidnapped Kirk! When does it end? When? When we find Frank? When we find out if his end game is to kill Jim and Joanna or not?” His voice trailed off, wavering on the last few syllables.

His speech left everyone else in the car silence. The next five minutes of the drive continued on in that somewhat uncomfortable silence. They were all mulling over what Sulu had brought up. Granted it was thoughts that they had all individually had, but none of them had previously wanted to give life to those thoughts. 

Especially those thoughts that ended in them not finding Jim in time, with them either finding him dead or them finding him with his psyche irreparably damaged. And those scenarios didn’t even think about what would happen to Joanna, in the event that Jim was no longer in the picture and she was left in Frank’s hands alone. 

The video of Joanna’s kidnapping showed that Jim’s stepfather wasn’t really all that concerned about Joanna’s health. 

“Zhe home of Katie Bensler should be on zhe left about half vay down zis road.” Chekov piped up timidly, somewhat reluctant to disturb the unsettling silence that had started to overwhelm the car. 

Sulu nodded slowly to show that he had heard the young Russian and turned down the road that Chekov had pointed out. The houses on the old torn up road were few and far between. It was one of those places where you never really got to know your neighbors because they just didn’t care enough to wander all the way over to another person's house. 

They pulled down a gravel pathway that was only marked by a number on the mailbox at the end of the driveway. It was a driveway that was blessedly shorter than McGareth’s. They could still see the road but it wasn’t completely visible from the front of the house due to both the distance and the heavy presence of decorative trees along the pathway. 

“You sure this is the place?” Sulu asked as he slowed the car to a stop and placed it into park. 

Chekov stuttered slightly as the car jerked when it slid into park. “I-It is. Unless ve are not at 169 Sanit Caravay Lane?” 

“That’s where we are unless I managed to read the sign wrong. But with a name like that I doubt I could miss it unless the sign was half covered by the giant trees.” Sulu threw the door open and stepped out, graciously waiting until the other three had gotten out of the car before he started walking towards the front porch. 

He and Scotty jogged up the steps and stood in front of the door. Scotty reached up to knock on the door forcefully when he realized that there wasn’t a doorbell in sight and they waited for a little over a minute without any kind of movement inside the house. 

“Knock again?” Chekov suggested softly when the two of them turned to look at him and Uhura. 

Scotty shrugged and knocked vigorously on the wood once again. Still there was no movement insides the house. Sulu groaned and walked over to a nearby window, trying to peer in through the curtains to see if this lady was just trying to hide from them or if she actually wasn’t home. 

“There is a light on in one of the back rooms, but I can’t see any actual movement. Knock again, Scotty. If I don’t see anything we’ll try something else.” 

“We dinnae want to waste any time, Lad. You said tha’ yourself.” Scotty said with a stern shake of his head. 

The scottish man then punctuated that statement by grabbing the doorknob to the front door and turning it, the door knob sliding easily with his hand as it opened without any resistance. 

Scotty tilted his head to the side and gave the three of them another hearty shrug before pushing the door all the way open. It opened with an irritatingly ominous creak. Scotty leaned forward, the top half of his body crossing over the threshold of the door jam. With a curious look he called out into the house. “‘Ello? Miss Bensler? Is anyone home?” 

But much like with them knocking on the door, no one answered their call. Which of course to Scotty, meant that he had practically gotten enthusiastic permission to enter. He stepped all the way into the house and reached over to the wall to flick on a light switch. Uhura and Sulu looked at each other over Chekov’s shoulder and followed Scotty’s lead with twin shrugs. 

“C’mon Pavel. We don’t have time to waste.” 

They all fanned out once they were inside the house, with Chekov and Sulu taking charge of searching the first floor. While they were doing that Uhura and Scotty had trotted up the stairs leading to the second floor to take a look around those room to make sure someone wasn’t hiding up there. 

Sulu slowly led his way through the first room, which turned out to be the kitchen. There wasn’t much to be found besides a few bills and some cards held to the fridge by some small magnets along with a half drunken glass of wine poured out of a nearly full bottle of red wine that had been left out on top of the kitchen table. 

Deciding that there was nothing of interest in the kitchen, the two of them moved on from that room and into the livingroom. Once again the room had little to no use to them. There were more bills scattered across a coffee table, a cup of stale coffee spilt over some other, indistinguishable pieces of paper. A tv was playing on mute in one corner of the room and a small, old, almost 21st century style laptop was left both open and started up on top of a couch on the far side of the room. 

With a sigh Sulu and Chekov shared a look before moving to the next hallway that lead from the livingroom and kitchen into another section of the first floor. The hallway opened up into three door. One after being opened led only to a small bathroom. The second was a large walk in closet which after a quick visual search only revealed the normal things you would find in a closet, nothing that said a person might have been hiding there. 

Sulu grabbed the knob of last door and yanked it open. Much like when Locke’s office door had finally been opened, the overwhelming stench of death flooded over Sulu and Chekov’s senses. Chekov had to take a few steps back from the door, coughing and retching loudly as he tried to get the smell out of his nose. Sulu however, remained standing firmly in front of the door, his eyes watered and his nose practically burned as he stood there like a statue. 

On the bed was the deceased body of what Sulu assumed used to be Katie Bensler. He had to pull out the driver's license and hold it up so that he could make a positive ID on the body. He coughed harshly as he took another step in the room, the smell nearly gagging him as it invaded his lungs and the taste of it soaked all of his tastebuds. 

But he still forced himself to carry on, systematically walking around the room and going through all of the things that he could see just out on her nightstand as well as any of the things he could plainly see without opening any drawers. He found a couple of paystubs from a local hospital and a half finished application for a small loan. There was also, of course, the normal stuff that you would find in a thirty year olds bedroom. 

Nothing that even suggested she might have been working with Frank. Instead it looked more like she was a mere victim of opportunity in Frank’s killing spree, much like Officer Janos. The only thing he was confused about was _why_ she had been a victim of opportunity. Janos had been killed because he pulled Frank over at the wrong time and the wrong place and even then it was one the way to McGareth’s farm. 

Katie’s house, however, was not only out of the way in relation to the quickest path to McGareth’s but it just didn’t seem to make sense that she happened to stumble across Jim and Frank all the way out here. 

“Sulu.” He turned at the sound of Uhura calling his name. 

He saw the second that the smell hit her and it took her a second to stop retching enough to continue on with what she had intended to say. 

“Sulu, why don’t we talk somewhere other than this room.” She coughed out quietly. 

Sulu nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. “What is it?” 

“You don’t happen to remember what the license plate number on the car used to kidnap Joanna was, would you?” When Sulu nodded no at her she sighed softly. “I didn’t think you would but I thought it would be better to ask on the off chance that you did actual remember it. I’ll call Pike and see if he remembers it.” 

When Sulu handed her his communicator she grasped it quickly and flipped it open. She typed Pike’s number in and hit the call button. It rang twice before sending it to his message box. When it went to his message box, she ended the call and instead dialed in Spock’s number. That rang seven times before also going to Spock’s message box. 

They both looked at each other with twin confused looks and she tried again to dial Spock’s number only for it to once again ring a few times then go to his message box. 

“Try McCoy.” He suggested. 

She raised an eyebrow and dialed in Leonard’s number. It rang twice and then with a soft click followed by some static, Leonard’s gruff voice filled the hallway. “What is it Uhura?”

“You don’t happen to remember what the license plate number for the car that Frank used to kidnap Joanna was would you?” She asked hesitantly. 

Leonard made a decisive noise in the back of his throat. “Not off the top of my head no, but I think Spock has screen grabs from the surveillance videos on his PADD. Just give me a second, I’ll get his PADD out of the car and see if it is still on there.” There was the sound of rustling, followed by the sound of a door slamming and feet pounding across dirt. More noises came across the channel as Leonard opened the door to the car and started fumbling around in it to find Spock’s PADD. “Alright, the license plate number is as follows. 9627BH.” 

Uhura sighed at that answer. “Alright, I need you to let Pike know that we found the owner of that car.” 

“What do ya mean?”

“We found Katie Bensler. She’s dead, probably has been dead for a few hours at least.” Sulu answered him. 

“Scotty and I found a small lock box up in one of the other rooms, it had a couple documents, such as her social security card, her birth certificate and her license and registration for her car. The registration clearly states that the license plate number you repeated to us is the same one that is currently on her car.” 

Leonard echoed her sigh. “I’ll tell him. He’s not going to be happy that we only found another dead end. Is there anything that shows she might have been connected to Frank before hand and just got killed to clean up evidence like with Locke?” 

Sulu shook his head even though he knew Leonard wouldn’t be able to see it. “Nothing points to her being an accomplice, though she might have been in Frank’s vicinity when he got stopped at the red light, so maybe he just saw it as a way to get a new car that wouldn’t have any bad blood tied to it? I mean her home is pretty secluded, I don’t think anyone would have found her if we hadn’t come along. And tell Pike that this might not be a dead end. Frank might not know that we’ve found her and if that is the case he might not have dumped her car. Try and see if you can get Pike to send out an APB on the license plate.” 

“Pike already did have an APB sent out, back when we first got the surveillance video of Joanna’s kidnapping. I’ll have to check and see if there has been any sightings of the car and get back to you. Pike told me if you called and the whole Katie lead ended up being a bust, that I should tell you to call the Security department at StarFleet headquarters and send them the address as well as the details so that they can secure the scene. Once you make sure they are on their way, you guys need to head back to McGareth’s.” 

Sulu couldn’t help his curiosity at the emotion in Leonard’s voice. “Did you guys manage to get into McGareth’s house?”

“Yeah. Spock, of all people, finally managed to beat his way into the house.”

“Alright. We’ll make the call and start heading back. Uhura out.” She said into the communicator as she pressed the button to end the call. She immediately dialed in the number for Hendorff, a man more commonly known among the Enterprise crew by the nickname of ‘Cupcake’, who had been promoted to Head of Security. She explained some of the situation to him, while imparting a dire sense of urgency into her words. Once she was sure he knew what to do and where to go, she officially logged a request for him and the security team for the Enterprise to come down to Riverside to secure the crime scene. 

“They are on their way, let's go get Chekov and Scotty and get back to that farm.” She said determinedly. 

“Where’d the two of them go anyway?”

“They couldn’t stand the smell. I’m pretty sure they are both throwing up over the porch railing into the front yard. Scotty said he could smell the second you opened her door all the way up on the second floor.”

* * *

Spock was barely able to contain his rage as he rounded on the cowering man in the corner. Leonard was still trying to shut off the recording of Jim, with little to no luck, and Spock knew that he could probably have the video turned off within a few seconds of looking at the comm but he couldn't pull himself away from McGareth. 

Something in the back of his mind, something that he couldn’t quite pin down as either Vulcan or Human, screamed at him to attack McGareth. It raged like a horrible cataclysmic storm against the shields that kept his unruly and strong emotions from overwhelming him. It wanted blood and pain and _revenge_. 

Whatever it was, was crying out for him to rip Mcgareth apart, for him to rend him limb from limb for the atrocities he had committed against his captain. 

No. Not only against his captain, but against someone he loved. Someone he had come to see as his best friend, his strongest confidant, his greatest partner. 

The blood lust, the rage that threatened to consume him was somehow even greater than anything he had ever felt. Greater even than the devastation of losing his planet, the despair of losing his mother, and the anger that had raged when Jim had insults his ability to love his recently departed mother. 

His love for Jim was different from his love for his mother, it was different from his tentative and long-build love for Uhura and it was startlingly different from his camaraderie with the other crew members of the Enterprise. However, despite it being so different, it was somehow more powerful. 

It honestly seemed as though every fibre of his being was howling for him to protect one of the greatest things about his life. 

But he couldn’t do that, the logical part of his mind piped up. If he sated his anger and hurt or more than likely killed McGareth they would lose the one solid lead they had on where Frank had taken Jim. Frank would slip that much farther out of Spock’s grasp and Jim would be towed along with him. 

With great restraint he somehow managed to pull himself out of the depths of his fury. 

“Where has Frank taken Jim?” Spock ground out with a hiss as he stood over Donald. 

Donald looked more and more like he was about to hyperventilate with every stalking step that Spock took towards him. “I - I don’t k - know either of them.” He whispered.

Spock growled and narrowly stopped himself from wrapping his hands around McGareth’s pale throat. “Do not presume me to be a fool. I am more than aware of your involvement with Frank Burkoff.” He stated icily. “Tell me where he took him or I will take that information out of your mind myself.” 

“Y- You wouldn’t do that! You’re a Vulcan, they are all about logic, there’s nothing logical about invading someone's mind against their will!” Donald stuttered out, it was obvious that he was trying to sound confident but he was failing horribly. 

Spock sneered down at him, letting his Vulcan wrath show clearly in his eyes. “You will find that Vulcans see protecting someone they cherish as logical regardless as to what methods they must use to protect them.” 

“You’re a member of StarFleet. They won’t allow you to do this! There is an Admiral in this room, he won’t allow you to violate another human's mind.” 

“There is not much that either of the humans in the room or the members of StarFleet would be able to do to stop me.” He could feel his muscles quivering underneath his skin. The longer McGareth withheld his information, the more and more he could feel his anger starting to build back up again. That emotion was once again battering at his mental shields, wearing them thin and Spock allowed himself to feel a small amount of worry at what might happen should he allow those shields to be broken by his anger.

Donald swallowed, the gulp sounding louder than an explosion to Spock’s ears. He could also hear it as McGareth’s pulse picked up wildly while the pungent stench of fear permeated the room. 

Donald opened his mouth, presumably to start telling Spock the information he wanted to hear but he was cut off by the recording of Jim that was still playing in the background. It played a heartbreaking wail that cut through the air. A wail that, using Leonard’s words, broke the camel’s back. Except the camel’s back wasn’t truly a camel’s back, instead it was Spock’s mental shields. 

The wail gave the anger crashing about in Spock’s mind just enough strength to crack and break his mental shields, rushing forwards in a devastating flood of endorphins and chemical reactions. Without a thought in his mind Spock surged forward, grabbing McGareth by the throat and throwing him nearly across the room, causing him to land on a chair which nearly shattered under his weight. 

He was across the room in seconds, picking McGareth back up by the throat with one hand and using the other to land a harsh blow to his jaw. He ignored the panicked shouting that bounced around the room from Leonard and Pike. Instead he continued hitting the man in front of him, aiming his hits onto various parts of McGareth’s body, shooting for maximum pain with as little damage as possible because some small part of his mind was still coherent enough to know that if he killed him he might never find Jim. 

Distantly, he felt Pike scrambling to get a hold of his arms, trying desperately to hold back his arm so that he would stop hitting McGareth.

“Spock!”

“Spock, you’ve got to stop!”

Suddenly Spock felt a sharp pain in his leg followed shortly by his whole body going stiff. As his muscles stopped working he was forced to drop McGareth. He dropped to the floor and took a deep breath in as the stun charge worked its way through his system. 

The phaser must have been on the lowest stun setting possible because he could still feel his body and if he focused his mind hard enough he thought he might be able to force his muscles to listen to him. He could hear McGareth groaning and whimpering in front of him and he felt it when Pike rolled him over onto his back while Leonard grabbed a hold of Donald’s arms and dragged him away to the other side if the room. 

“That stun charge should wear off in a few minutes, or less possibly. I’ve never had to stun a Vulcan before.” Pike said softly as he slumped down the wall next to where Spock was lying. “Are you going to be able to control yourself when the stun charge wears off? Blink twice for yes or once if you don’t think you are going to be able to.”

Spock blinked twice, making sure the blinks were slow enough that Pike could make sure of how many times he was actually blinking. 

“Good. Because Leonard and I have both tried to shut this video off, but McGareth must have screwed something up when he went to go delete the files. Something is making it so that you can’t actually close out or delete any of the files. In fact, we can’t even do anything on the video player. We can’t even press the pause button.” Pike said with a sigh. “Hopefully, you can put that big brain of yours to a better use than beating the shit out of McGareth and stop that video from playing.” 

Spock could already start to feel the strength going back into his muscles and he slowly twitched his extremities, working the blood flow back into all of his limbs. He sat up with a long controlled breath and stood. He blatantly ignored the other side of the room where Leonard was begrudgingly checking McGareth over with his tri-corder. 

He walked over to the desk chair that was sat in front of the desk that the comm units panel was on. When he sat down he had to take a few seconds to filter the sound of Jim in pain out of his mind, he forced himself to block out Jim’s voice, lest he lose control once again and go back after McGareth. 

Spock clicked around on the screen, trying to find out what exactly was causing the video to continue played despite attempts to stop it and he almost immediately figured out why the video player had stopped accepting commands. Donald, in his haste to stop playing the video, had tried to shut down the encrypted files without using his password. Then when it prompted him for the password that was required for any actions involving the encrypted files, he simultaneously tried to forcefully shut off the comm and tried to put in his password as the command for the shutdown started. 

The combination and subsequent clashing of the commands was what caused the video to get stuck as the comm unit froze out access to the controls of the screen. All Spock had to do once he had figured out the problem was hack into the comm unit using his own PADD, which Leonard had brought into the house with him, and then clear out all the command prompts that had been logged into the system. When the comm unit unfroze the controls, Spock clicked the pause button, thankfully cutting off the horrible sounds that the recording of Jim was still making. 

Finally, when all the noise stopped assaulting his ears he dared to glance up at the video, pointedly focusing his eyes on the background and general areas of the video and not of Jim or his face. As he took in the black pegboards lining the wall directly behind Jim as well as the small glimpse of more black pegboards on the edges of the screen, he turned away and motioned Pike over to him. 

“What is it Spock?” Pike asked seriously. The admiral had one eye trained on Leonard who was still in the corner with McGareth while his other eye was focused on whatever it was Spock was trying to show him.

“The video shows pegboard lining the walls of wherever Jim was being held while this was being filmed. As pegboard is most commonly used in garages and barns on Terra it would only be logical to assume that this pegboard was located in a similar environment.”

“So you think Jim might have been held in a barn or a garage on McGareth’s property.” 

Spock nodded as he made sure to mute the video before pressing play to find out if the video showed any more of the area that might allow them to narrow down where Jim was held. The video started back up, but it seemed as though the camera was kept stationary since the cameras view never actually moved from where it was pointed at Jim’s body. Every once in awhile Donald’s form would wander back into the frame of the video, only to wander back out again soon after but it would be enough for a jury to convict him for assault at the very least. 

“That definitely has to be the barn or the garage that is out back. It looks like a pretty big room and the dimensions of this house wouldn’t account for a room that big.” Pike said. Spock agreed with him with a nodd. “You go ahead and check out the barn and the garage. See if anything is still left there.”

“Would you not prefer to have someone accompany me?” 

“I don’t want to leave McGareth here alone with Leonard. I can’t be completely sure that he won’t also go ballistic once he’s alone with that guy but I sure as hell don’t want to send him into the place that Jim was literally tortured at. He doesn’t need to see that.” Pike said softly, his gaze slowly roaming over to Leonard, who had moved a little bit farther away from McGareth without actually leaving his side.

Spock nodded again and got up out of the chair. With one last look around the room and at McGareth, he walked out of the room and further until he was out the front door. Turning himself towards the barn, he had already decided based on the estimated dimensions from the video that the more logical choice to search first was the barn. As he pushed the barn door open, he was greeted by a normal first floor of the barn. It was filled with the normal instruments that would be used for livestock and farming. 

After a cursory glance around he was almost 98% sure that the first floor of the barn was clear. So he turned his sight to the stairs that led up to the second floor of the barn. At the top of the stairs was a 21st century heavy steel door, the fact that the door was slightly ajar made the lock and handprint scanner to the side of the door useless. He jogged up the stairs and pushed the door open. 

Logic turned out not have led him astray as the door swung open to reveal the very room that had been shown in the video. But Jim wasn’t there. 

Part of Spock was glad that he hadn’t allowed the very human emotion of hope to bloom in his side, because it surely would have been crushed at the fact that he hadn’t managed to get any closer to finding Jim. 

On a whim he crossed the room, trying wholeheartedly to ignore the torture implements that were draped across the walls, to the second door that separated to top floor of the barn into two rooms. Once again as the door swung open it revealed nothing more than another room full of equipment that only use could have been to cause pain. He took seven point three minutes to search around both rooms, making sure he hadn’t missed any clues as to where Frank and Jim might have gone. But much like every other lead they had found on their investigation, this one, once again panned out to basically nothing. All they had now was McGareth. Who, whether he wanted to or not, was going to give up every bit of information he had that might lead them to Jim. 

Spock would make sure of that. 

 

Regardless of what it might cost him in the long run, he would find Jim.

* * *

“Alright, we are supposed to be heading back to McGareth’s farm right? Are you sure we shouldn’t wait here until Hendorff and the other security guys get here?” 

“Pike told us to go back to the farm. Hendorff is on his way, the local police have no idea that we were here and they definitely don’t know that Bensler got killed, so I doubt they are going to come and try to cover up any evidence leading back to Frank.” 

Sulu rolled his eyes at Uhura’s answer. “We’ve already saw them cover up the murder of one of their own officers and they tried to hide that suitcase! We’ve already been over this Uhura. They are constantly fucking thwarting us at every single turn. For all we know they could have let us take this car because they bugged it or something so they could keep an eye on any leads we get!”

“Ye are startin’ ta sound a wee bit paranoid there, lad.” 

“I’m not paranoid, I just don’t want them fucking us over any more than they already have!” 

Uhura glanced up from her PADD and glared directly at Sulu, who had yet to even start the car let alone start driving it back towards McGareth’s farm. She was trying to go through the information that Spock and Pike had forwarded to her about the videos they found on McGareth’s comm but she was having a hard time doing that when Sulu wouldn’t shut the hell up. 

“Sulu, there was barely any evidence at Bensler’s house. Beside the facts that pointed towards her being murdered by Frank and Frank stealing her car to go get Joanna, we basically got nothing. There is pretty much no reason for the Riverside police to cover that up when it gave us nothing we didn’t already know, as you have already pointed out. We’ve taken photos and logged everything we’ve found into the official StarFleet reports, we’ve got our top security people coming to secure the crime scene along with a dedicated crime scene unit.” She argued. “Everything is as much under control here as it can be. We need to regroup with Pike, Spock and Leonard and try to get McGareth to tell us what Frank is planning. That is the only thing we can do at this point.”

She let out a long sigh and gestured down towards the steering wheel in from of him. “Now, start the car and start driving or move to the back seat so someone else can drive us.”

Sulu huffed, grabbing a hold of the keys and turning them in the ignition to start the car. 

Except it didn’t start. 

The only thing that happened when he turned the keys was a loud spluttering noise coming from the engine as it tried to turn over. The noise was followed shortly by a screech and then the engine completely stopped attempting to turn over. All four of them shared confused looks before Sulu grabbed a hold of the keys again and tried starting it. 

But it sputtered and screeched once again. 

“Ye gotta be bloody kiddin’” Scotty cursed as he threw the back door open and jogged around to the front of the car. He yanked the hood up and hooked the hood strut on the bottom. He cursed again before calling out to the others. “Someone nicked the bloody spark plug coil pack!” 

“Someone took the spark plugs?” Sulu said looking back at Chekov.

Chekov scrambled over the back seat and out the door that Scotty had left open. “Vhat did you say Scotty?” 

“Someone took our damn spark plug coil pack, lad!”

“I do not remember anyvone outside zhe house while ve vere in zhere?” 

“Man, it’s almost like someone must have somehow followed us out here and wanted to derail our investigation!” Sulu yelled with an irritated look shot Uhura’s way. 

She glared at him and pushed her door open to go stand next to Chekov and Scotty in front of the car’s engine. Sulu sighed irritably and walked out to the front of the car to stand with all of them, he couldn’t help with anything that was even remotely related to engineering but he didn’t want to just sit in the car doing nothing. 

Scotty and Chekov fiddled around with a few different things in the engine before turning and spouting off a bunch of words that neither Uhura nor Sulu could truly understand. 

“Can you fix it or should we call Leonard back and have him send someone to come get us?” Uhura asked after nearly ten minutes of them twiddling and tinkering with a bunch of different parts and pieces. When neither of them seemed to be listening to her question she banged on the side of the hood and repeated her question. 

“Lass, we’ll ‘ave ta check around in her garage ta see if there is anythin’ we might be able ta use.” Scotty said contemplatively. “The brand of tha police car is the same as her car. We might be able ta use a spark plug coil pack that was meant for her car if she has a spare one.” 

“What are the chances of her actually _having_ a spare spark plug coil pack?” Sulu questioned exasperatedly. 

Chekov leaned back from the engine. “Vith zhis make of car zhe spark plug coil pack usually goez bad wery quickly. She might hawe one eef she had zhe car for longer enough to find zat out.” 

“I hope to fucking god she has an extra one.” 

“I vill go look!” Chekov exclaimed as he bounded back towards the garage. They all watched as he threw the door open and clambered inside. Even from all the way across the driveway they could hear the clangs and thuds of things falling to the ground as he rummaged around in the garage with not care as to the mess he was leaving on the floor. 

Ten minutes passed by and then Scotty must have silently decided that he had waited long enough because he started walking towards the garage and went inside as well, the noise ramping up a notch as he just blatantly threw things off of the shelves in a frenzy to try and find what he needed faster. 

“I hawe found eet!” They heard Chekov cheer before he was practically skipping back to the car with a small black box in his hand. He quickly shoved Sulu and Uhura to the side and bent back over the engine, muttering to himself as he started connecting wires together and clipping pieces back together. With a few final clicks he and Scotty had the top of the engine compartment put back together and Sulu slid into the driver's seat and turned the keys again. 

Everyone except Uhura cheered as the car's engine turned over and fired back to life, the sputtering and screeching now completely gone. 

The three of them climbed back into their respective seats and Sulu put the car in reverse and started backing out of the drive way. Sulu tapped a random tune on the steering wheel as he turned the car back onto the main road that they would have to take to get back to the back roads they had to drive down to get to the Farm. 

“Anyone want the music turned on? This silence is getting kind of suffocating.” Sulu asked to the other passengers of the car. 

“No.” 

“Oh, c’mon Uhura. Why can’t we have any music on?” 

Uhura turned to him and just stared. “Because I’m trying to look through all of these videos that Pike sent to me and I can’t focus on just the videos when you have music blasting through the speakers.” 

“But you said before that you wouldn’t need the sound on those videos.” 

Which was true. She had told him that she wouldn’t have the sound on, mostly because Pike had specifically told her not to turn the sound on. He had been vague but within a few seconds of opening the first video file it was clear why he hadn’t wanted her to turn the sound on. No one needed or wanted to hear their captain getting tortured. Especially not with how high tensions were already rising between everyone. And the three men riding with her still hadn’t been informed as to the extent of Jim’s torture. 

Just the first minute or two of the first file alone, Pike had informed her that the first video file he was sending her seemed like the most recently shot one, was hard for her to watch. She had to pause it multiple times to keep herself from either crying or retching at the horror that was captured by just a few lines of coding. 

“I don’t need the sound on, no. That doesn’t mean that the noise from music won’t constantly distract me and you know as well as I do that when Chekov hears a song he likes, he’ll start caterwauling along to it.” 

“I do not catervaul!”

Uhura reached back and patted Chekov’s knee softly. “I love you Pavel, you know I do. But you can’t hold a key or a rhythm for the life of you.” She snuck a glance in the rearview mirror and saw the pout that had formed on Chekov’s face. “Let me at least get through one or two of these videos and then we can turn on the music.”

Sulu simply hummed in response and took his hand away from the radio’s tuning dial. 

With that debate solved Uhura turned her attention back to the PADD on her lap, then she started up the video again. The video started up again with a shot of Jim strapped into some form of a padded box on the end of a padded table. Her eyes darted around every corner of the frame, trying to pick up anything that Spock or Pike might have missed. She was trying to ignore the fact that the frames she was examining held a picture of her captain being forced to deepthroat a light pink dildo, that was held by a man twice his age who had him strapped to a fucking table. 

Every so often her eyes would travel back to Jim’s face and it seemed that they chose just the right time to move back because from one second to the next Jim went from sucking on the dildo like his life depended on it, to Jim letting the dildo slip from his mouth so that he could surge forwards and latch his teeth onto McGareth’s hand. 

She narrowly managed to stop the mental cheer from becoming a cheer that was voiced out loud. She didn’t want to have to show everyone else this video if she didn’t absolutely have to, even if the video was showing that Jim was fighting back against his kidnappers. 

That cheer of course devolved into a mental moan of anguish when Jim was hit in the head repeatedly for biting McGareth. She paused the video for a few seconds, trying to keep her composure together, she could break down later when she wasn’t in the company of others. It was hard. It really hard not to cry at the sight of the abuse her captain had endured, the abuse that he might still be enduring. 

She wasn’t a woman that cry often, but this, this was something that just made her want to bawl. 

When she lifted her eyes away from the PADD to look out the front windshield she realized that she had been watching the video for longer than she had thought and they were actually on McGareth’s driveway about a quarter mile from the front of his house.

* * *

“Did you find anything, Spock?” Pike asked as he looked up to see that Spock was walking back in through the living room door. 

Spock shook his head almost dejectedly. “No, Admiral. While it was, in fact the place that those videos were shot, there was not anything that might give us another lead towards where Jim currently is now. Have you or Leonard had any more success with trying to convince Mr. McGareth to tell us what he knows of Frank’s plans?” 

“Nope. Leonard has been trying to get him to talk but he is still trying to convince us that he doesn’t know Frank, even though I’ve found pictures of him and Frank from back when they were in high school, as well as a few that are from more recent times.” Pike answered. He gestured towards a room that was offshooting the living room, where Leonard was pacing back and forth in front of a pale McGareth who was sitting in a chair. “Surprisingly enough he didn’t try to run away. Not even when I left to go get something out of the car or when I was in the other rooms and he was left alone with McCoy.”

Spock straightened up to his full height and started walking over to Leonard, he was stopped, however by Pike’s hand on his shoulder. “Listen, Spock. McCoy healed up all of the injuries that McGareth sustained during your...lapse of control. I’m not completely sure he will allow those injuries to slide in the event that we take him to trial for what he did to Jim.”

Spock cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I am aware that I have put you in a difficult position. If he attempts to bring me up on criminal charges for assaulting him, then I will go to court for those charges. But I do not want any kind of plea deal struck for a lighter sentence for him in the event that he uses me as a leverage point to get out of what he did to Jim.” When Pike looked like he was about to object to what Spock was saying, he barrelled on instead of letting him speak. “You must promise me that you will not allow either yourself or any lawyers to put my career above getting justice for Jim. We have already made that mistake before by allowing Frank Burkoff to get a lighter sentence than normally required for his crimes. I can not allow that to happen to Jim again.” Spock pleaded. He wouldn’t let Pike break eye contact with him until the other man nodded at him. 

“I’ll try everything I can, but there is a chance that the Admirals will rather let him off easy so that they can keep you as an officer.” 

Spock conceded to that, he was technically a valuable asset due to both his intelligence and his heritage. With that, he continued on his way to Leonard, who looked up at him as he crossed over the threshold with an irritated look on his face. Not that seeing an irritated look on Leonard’s face was anything new to Spock. 

“This bastard isn’t givin’ anything up. He’s still insistent that he doesn’t fucking know Jim or Frank.” He said in frustrated. 

“That's because I don’t know them!” 

Leonard threw his hands up in the air at that and stormed off back into the living room.

“We already know that you are an acquaintance of Frank’s. We have a virtual plethora of videos that show you abusing and torturing James T. Kirk, there is no more use in denying your association with Frank Burkoff.” Spock stated. “You need to tell us all you know of his plan and what exactly he intends to do with Captain Kirk.”

Donald bit his bottom lip and aimed his eyes at the ceiling above him. Spock let him spend the next few minutes in contemplation, he just sat across from him and kept his eyes from boring into the man’s visage. “I’ll tell you what Frank has planned and where he took Jimmy if I get a deal.” 

Spock’s nostrils flared at the audacity that this man had. “If you would give me a minute to discuss this with Admiral Pike, I will give you an answer soon.” Spock stood up and forced himself to walk back out to where Pike and Leonard were standing together, talking to Uhura and Sulu, who at some point must have arrived back from their investigation. “Admiral.” He called softly. 

Pike turned to look at him. “That was quick. Did he turn you down as well?” 

“No, he told me that he would talk if he was given a deal for a lesser sentence.” 

“Well. Then tell him he has a deal.” 

Spock looked at Pike with a flabbergasted look. “Admiral, we discussed this only a mere eight point four minutes ago. You told me that we would not be giving Donald McGareth a plea deal.”

“Spock, I said I wouldn’t give him a deal if he was trying to get one by threatening you. But that isn’t what he is trying to do. He wants one in exchange for information, information that we desperately need, Spock. Now go tell him he has a deal before he changes his mind!” 

He frowned in irritation at the Admiral before him, but he could see the logic in what Pike was doing and even though it went against what he wanted, he turned back and reentered the room that McGareth was in. 

“You have your deal.” Donald’s head whipped over his way in shock, a sentiment that Spock knew all too well. “Now, you will tell me what you know of Frank’s plan along with where he has taken James. If your information proves itself correct then you will receive your deal. If we find out that you have lied or misinformed us, you deal will be considered voided. You may now begin telling me what you know.” Spock sat back and gestured for McGareth to start.

“Uh - Uh, well Frankie only called me once he had already gotten in Jimmy’s apartment. He said that he had convinced some idiot admiral that he could get Jimmy to, uh, ‘perform’ for him in exchange for the admiral breakin’ him out of jail. Frankie said he needed somewhere to stash Jimmy for a couple of hours because he had a date with a girl that he couldn’t miss, now I don’t know who the hell goes out on a date at nine in the morning.” Donald stuttered out, “But he said it was pretty damn important for him to go meet her.”

Donald took a deep breath and began again. “He called me again around eight in the morning after he left to tell me that he needed me to drive Jim somewhere since he didn’t think he would make it back to Riverside in time to pick Jimmy up and take him there himself -”

Spock cut Donald off at that. “ _Where_ did he tell you to take him.” 

“He told me that I had to drive him to one of the local doctor's practice, a doctor that Jimmy used to go to when he was a little guy -” 

“The doctor’s name, please?” 

“Um, his name was, Uh, Dr, Andreas. I took him there for about 8:15 in the morning, this morning.” He stammered. 

“Do you know anything else about his plans?”

“No, he didn’t tell me anything else.”

Spock stood up and walked back out to the living room for the second time. “Admiral we need to find a doctor by the name of -”

“Dr. Andreas.” Uhura, Leonard and Pike chorused before he could even get the name out. He looked at Pike with a shocked look again. 

“We just got a hit on the APB we put out on Katie’s car, granted we didn’t know it was her car at the time, it has been sitting in the parking lot of a practice belonging to a Dr. Andreas since around 11 this morning. No one has even seen it move the whole time it has been parked there.” Uhura informed him as she handed him her PADD which had the reported sighting of the car on it. “Which means chances are he’s already stolen another car and since Dr. Andreas’ doesn't have any working hours on Sundays but his car was also spotted there earlier, we’ve gone ahead and sent out an alert for his license plate number.”

“We will need to head over there immediately.” 

Sulu stepped up and threw a pair of car keys at him, which he deftly caught. “We are already one step ahead of you. As soon as we got here we got the keys for the police car you were using and sent Chekov and Scotty to the doctors practice, just in case someone might go there and try to get rid of anything. I’m going to stay here and guard over McGareth until the security team from StarFleet gets here.”

At that, Pike, Leonard and Uhura ushered him out of the house and into the driver's seat of the police car waiting at the foot of the stairs. He started up the car and put it in reverse to start backing out of the driveway. 

They were only a few minutes into the drive to the doctor’s medical building when Leonard’s comm unit started chiming loudly. With a growl he pulled it off his belt and flipped it open to answer it with a gruff, “McCoy here.” 

“What? Are you s - Are you sure?” He faltered. “Yes, Yes, just give me a second, I need to find something.” 

Leonard held his hand over the microphone part of the comm unit. “I need a PADD. Now.” He said desperately. Uhura, who was sitting in the backseat with him, quickly handed over her PADD. Leonard snatched it out of her hand and put the comm unit back up to his ear. “Okay, go ahead and tell it to me again. 7 Aspen Court, Riverside? Yeah, I can be there in like ten minutes tops.” 

Leonard hung up his comm unit and sat there with an astonished look on his face. 

“Leonard? What’s going on? Who called you?” Uhura asked as she laid a hand on Leonard’s shoulder. 

“T - That was the local Riverside hospital.” 

“What did they want to talk to you about?” 

“They have Joanna in their emergency room.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for reading, I look forward to any form of feedback you guys give me!


	12. A means to an end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The colliding of Jim and Leonard's timelines as they finally catch up to eachother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I know this chapter is a long time coming. It's taken me a while because it wassuch a long write and about half way through editing this chapter I realized that they was a few small plot holes that I needed to fill up. There are also captions at the beginning of every scene, since Jim's POV's are actually set almost a day ahead of where Leonard's are. 
> 
> But alas, this chapter is finally done. There may or may not be another chapter after this, depending on whether or not you guys want it. If you guys do want it, it'll be primarily about Frank's trial and what ends up happening to him as well as a little bit about Jim and Joanna's recovery, so let me know in the comments if you want another chapter or not.

_Riverside, Iowa 0830 hours (8:30am), Third Morning of Shoreleave (Jim POV); Takes place 35 minutes before Bones is woken up to the news of his daughter's kidnapping._

Jim squirmed around in the trunk of McGareth's car. He had been locked back here for what seemed like hours, though he knew that in reality it was probably only a few minutes. But with the cold in the air chilling him to the core and the constant pain of being thrown around the trunk, getting knocked into by whatever Don had in his car was messing up his ability to tell time. If he mind served him right then it should have only be about fifteen minutes from Don's house to the edge of the small town of Riverside, Iowa and from the edge of town it would only be another ten minutes of driving through the main streets to get to where Dr. Andreas' medical practice was. 

That thought sent chills down his spine that rivaled the chill the air was giving him. 

He didn't know exactly what was in store for him at the doctor's office but he knew it wasn't anything good. Going to Andreas' never meant anything other than pain and humiliation followed only by more pain. The man who had the audacity to call himself a doctor was horrid. But even though he was horrid, he was still slightly better than Dr. Mathers. Even then, he was only better because the he had no interest in Jim sexually, instead he just wanted someone he could 'experiment' on. He wanted someone he could try out new drugs, new techniques, new tools on without any consequences and Frank sure as hell wasn’t going to give him any consequences, not when Andreas allowed Frank unmonitored use of any and all of his equipment and medications. Frank wasn't going to pass up the free drugs he could use to subdue and harm Jim. 

He hadn’t been back to Andreas’ office since before he was shipped off to Tarsus to live with his aunt and her husband. He had hoped that he would never have to go back there but apparently the stupid fucking universe had decided that it was high time he paid a visit to every monster that haunted his past. Next thing he knew he would probably end up back with Kodos. Or maybe the universe would somehow revive Nero and thrown him back at Jim. 

Jim let out a whine as the car took a sharp turn and jammed his unprotected side onto something cold, hard and sharp. Whatever it was stayed there and scratched up his side for nearly a minute until he finally came to a stop against what felt like the opposite side of the trunk from where he had started at. His head was resting limply against the upholstery of the side of the car. His jaw was sore and anytime he tried to so much as twitch the muscles around his mouth they started cramping horribly thanks to the prolonged use of the gag in his mouth. 

The only relief he had was the fact that the leather bindings that held him in his fetal position weren’t cutting into his skin the way the rope bindings Frank had used had. Another sharp turn suddenly threw him back across the trunk and into the wall. Apparently Donald was one of the worse fucking drivers in the world. He coughed violently as the force of his rolling around drove his knee back towards his chest, making the metal prongs from the shock collar bite into his throat, forcing his adam's apple backwards and making him choke. Jim squeezed his eyes shut and tried to take in a few slow, deep breaths to steady himself and avoid vomiting. 

Vaguely he could feel the car's wheels grind to a stop on the gravel underneath them, the feeling followed shortly by a loud thud as the door to the car slammed shut. He counted the seconds as he waited for the trunk to be thrown open. 

It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the blinding light of the morning sun once the trunk was wrenched open. The first thing he saw once his eyes had adjusted was the bulky silhouette of Donald. Jim groaned as he was roughly grabbed and manhandled out of the trunk of the car. Don sat him down on the ground, his back leaning against the metal bumper of the car while he leaned down and picked up the duffle bag that had been in the trunk with him. The blonde man pulled a small hypospray out of the bag and quickly sunk it into the side of Jim’s neck and administered the medication with a soft _hiss_. 

Don then turned back and lifted the duffle bag up once again. When he had the bag slung over his shoulder he reached down again and picked Jim back up. Jim whined softly to himself as his vision began to swim. His head suddenly felt like it was filled up with hot fog. It took him nearly a full minute to get his bearings back enough to balance himself in Don’s arms so that he wouldn’t accidently get himself thrown onto the ground. 

Don stood there for a moment trying to find a way to balance the weight of the dufflebag as well as Jim’s weight. Then with a quick look around, presumably to make sure that no one was watching him, Don slammed the trunk shut and started the short trek into the doctor's office behind them. 

A soft chime rang out through the still air in the front office as Don carried him through the door. 

“Jackson!” 

Jim had to force himself not to jump at Don’s voice booming through the room, as it was, he barely managed to keep his muscle to a slight tremble. The office hadn’t changed at all since the last time he had been it as a nine year old boy. It still had the same little toy blocks over in the kids section, kept in an orderly little box right next to a small plastic table that was surrounded by little plastic chairs. Even the magazines that were scattered around the chairs were all the same. It sent shivers down Jim’s spine. 

For a still moment all he could think about was the times he would be forced to sit out here, in this very room, waiting at Frank’s side knowing full well what horrors were about to befall him once he walked through the door back into the exam rooms. 

Don set him down on one of the chairs and stormed over to the reception desk, he glanced around the glass panels trying to get a glimpse of anyone who might be in the office. 

“Jack!” He yelled banging on the glass. “I don’t have all day, Jack! Come get Jim before I decided to just leave and take him back to my house.” 

“I’m coming! Just hold on.” A raspy voice called back. There was the soft _tap tap tap_ of shoes against tile shortly before the door to the left of the reception desk creaked open to reveal the form of Dr. Andreas. “I see you haven’t learned even a modicum of patience since we last saw each other.” 

The man, much like the office he worked in, had barely changed in the years since Jim had last been around him. He still had the same dark hair, though it had a few sprinklings of greyish white hairs, the same dark and piercing eyes that seemed to see everything that happened around him. He was shorter than Don but not by much and what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in physical strength.

His bulky muscles probably rivaled those of Jim’s head of security Jason Hendorff and part of Jim was surprised that Andreas had maintained such a bulky form especially since he was even older than both McGareth and Frank. Andreas sent a quick glance and a sinister smile Jim’s way, then he turned to face Don again. “I’m assuming that Frank told you he won’t be here for a couple more hours?” 

“He said he would be here in about two and a half hours.” 

“Yes, well he told me that he was okay with you heading home instead of meeting him here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take Jim back into my exam room and begin what Frank asked me to do.” 

Don rolled his eyes at the sly tone that Andreas had taken on. “Yeah, yeah, you slippery eel. Just make sure that Frank brings the shock collar and the plug back to me.” 

“Well since you are here I might as well just go ahead and give them back. Why make Frank waste his time.” Andreas said distractedly as he wandered over to where Jim was curled up in the chair. 

Jim couldn’t see him, thanks to the fact that he had moved around the back of the chair but he could feel those dark eyes tracing over every inch of him and it made his skin crawl. He tried to lift his head off of where it was resting against his knees but the chain that was clipped to his collars was keeping him from raising it more than a few centimeters. 

A soft sigh preceded a feather light touch against the back of his neck. Jim’s muscles tensed under that caress and he rocked forward to get away from those hands. “Well, Jim your father will be here soon. So we better hurry up so I can get down to business.” 

Andreas reached around behind him and unclasped the buckle for the leather strap that kept Jim compressed into a ball. Then he unclipped the chain from the strap that held his knees together, before Jim could do anything more than uncurl himself, Andreas had reached up and unclipped the shock collar. He threw it over towards Don, who barely managed to catch it before it hit the floor, and then he grabbed a hold of the plug and eased it out of Jim. 

He didn't throw that at McGareth though, instead he went ahead and set it on one of the chairs next to Jim. “Alright, there you are. Now if you don’t have anything else to ask of me, I truly must get Jim’s procedure started.” 

Don just grunted and plucked a few tissues from a nearby box to wrap the plug in. 

“If you need it there is a bathroom right on the other side of that door. Feel free to wash that plug off before you leave, you wouldn’t want the bacteria to gather and grow on it.” Andreas said with a nod to a door that was clearly marked ‘restroom’

Andreas leant down and without so much as a grunt he hoisted Jim up and onto his shoulder before turning around and walking back through the door he came out of. Jim had to fight to keep himself from vomiting as the change in elevation made his head loll against Andreas’ broad back. He tried to focus his mind on cataloging every possible exit strategy but he couldn’t quite seem to make his mind focus. They went down a long hallway passed multiple different exam rooms until they finally reached one with a keypad on the side of it. Andreas typed in a code and waited for the doors to slowly swish open then he walked forward into a room. 

Jim shivered at the cold recirculated air that was rushing over his naked body. He could feel his skin pebbling as he shuddered. Jackson set him down on what was essentially a dentist's chair, except the arms rest and the foot rests had been outfitted with what looked like steel manacles. 

Andreas grabbed the straps that held his ankles together and quickly undid them so that he could move on to the straps that were holding his knees together and undo them with the same quick, efficient movements he had used on his ankles. Without wasting any time he grabbed ahold of Jim’s left ankle and secured it in the middle of the manacle forcing the manacle closed with a sharp _clang_. He did the same with Jim’s other ankle and gave a satisfied pat to the meat of Jim’s thigh before standing up out of his crouch. 

He pulled Jim forward by his shoulders and undid the strap that kept his arms firmly pinned to his back. As soon as Jim’s arms were brought forward in front of him, even though his wrists were still pinned together, he started trying to make his escape. He brought his elbow up and attempted to jam it into Andreas’ stomach, only to find that Andreas had in fact been fully prepared for him to fight back. One hand had been thrust out to grab a hold of his elbow while the other slammed a hypo into his neck, the cartridge swiftly unloading into his veins and leaving him almost completely limp and slumped back against the chair. 

Andreas took advantage of Jim’s limp state and undid the bindings on his wrists so that he could place each wrist in its respective manacle. “Frank warned me that you would most likely fight back. Not that you haven’t before.” He said with a chuckle.

He turned around and pulled over a silver rolling tray filled with various pieces of equipment. He picked up what looked to be a piece of turquoise colored synthetic rubber. It was sat on its broad edge, but Jim could clearly tell that it was meant to be turned sideways since there were two set of teeth shaped indentations on what would be the top and bottom of the rubber. 

It turned out he was right because soon enough Andreas was unbuckling the gag from his mouth and replacing it with the stiffened rubber piece. The top set of indentations fit around his top set of teeth while the bottom set molded themselves to the bottom row. The piece made it so that Jim’s jaw was forced to open nearly two inches wide and he could already feel the ache in his jaw starting to form. The synthetic rubber was just flexible enough to fit in his mouth but stiff enough that he couldn’t clench his jaw shut at all. 

“There we go. Now you shouldn’t be able to move your jaw at all while I’m working.” Andreas hummed softly to himself as he turned back around and started fiddling with some more of the tools. 

He picked up a small dental drill as well as a pair of long tweezers and set them on a tray that he had folded out from the armrests on the chair. Once they were set down he picked up a tricorder and slowly ran it up and down along Jim’s chest. It beeped twice and it caused Andreas to start frowning. He ran another scan only to receive another two beeps. He cursed under his breath and stood up, walking over to the other side of the room and picking up a communicator. 

Andreas typed in a code and waited as the comm unit rang. 

“ _What?_ ” 

“Frank, we have a problem.” 

“ _What do you mean we have a problem? Did Don not come and drop Jimmy off?_ ” Jim could hear the irritated tone in Frank’s voice, a tone that used to mean he was about to get the shit kicked out of him. 

“No, Don dropped him off, that’s not it. I can’t do the procedure that you wanted.” Andreas said curtly. 

Frank let out an aggravated groan. “ _Why the hell not?_ ” 

“Because the drug Don gave him before he brought him here is still in his system.” 

“ _So? Why does that matter?_ ”

Andreas pursed his lips and started pacing back and forth in from of Jim’s chair. “Because I need to give him the secondary medication we talked about to be able to have everything react the way you want it to and I can’t give it to him with the stuff he has in his system right now. It could cause an allergic reaction at best and kill him at the worst.” 

Frank sighed in irritation. “ _How long will it take for the medication to get out of his system?_ ” 

“It should only be about 3 hours. Possibly 3 hours and 45 minutes at the most. Once its cleared his system I can begin the procedure.” 

“ _Well I won’t be there for about another three hours so as long as the procedure doesn’t take to long that should work out fine._ ” 

Jim watched wearily as Andreas stopped pacing and nodded to himself. “The procedure should only take about 20 minutes at the most. I can go ahead and start the first part but I’ll just have to wait until you get here to finish it. You’ll be up and ready to leave almost immediately after you get here.” 

“ _Good. Good. I don’t want to stick around any longer than I have to._ ” 

“Of course. I’ll get started right now.” Andreas said with certainty as he disconnected the call and turned back around towards Jim. He walked over and sat on the little stool that was in front of Jim. He picked up a small bio mask and started moving it towards Jim’s face. “Usually I would keep you awake for this, but considering that I’m doing this and then leaving you alone for nearly three hours, I’ll just go ahead and knock you out. By time you wake back up your father will be here to pick you up.” 

Jim whined in his head, desperately trying to shake the biomask off his face but with how weak his muscles were from whatever Andreas had given him, the movement was practically useless. 

The last thing he heard as he started to drift off was Andreas telling him to count down from ten.

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1200 hours (12pm), Third Afternoon of Shoreleave (Jim POV); Takes place during Bones, Spock and Pikes initial searching of Jim’s apartment; Before The Space Family goes to find Locke_.

 

Jim moaned softly as he started fighting his way back to consciousness. He could vaguely hear what sounded like voices somewhere in the room with him but his mind was so bogged down that he could quite place what was being said. 

“Where can I put her that she won’t get into any trouble?” 

“There’s an observation room through that door and up the stairs, there's nothing in it but a few chairs. You can tie her to one of them and she shouldn’t be a problem.” 

Jim’s eyes kept slipping open into slits only to close a second or two later, his mind so full of static that he couldn’t even bare to keep his eyes open. There was a sound that rang out in the air, it sounded almost like someone had started up a power drill but as Jim tried to focus on it the sound started to fade out as he drifted off again. 

The next time Jim opened his eyes slightly he had to immediately snap them back shut at the searing pain that lanced through his head. There was a bright light shining directly over his head and it took him a few seconds to actually remember where he was and why he was there. 

Andreas’ office. 

Frank kidnapped me. 

He breathed in deep through his nose and tried to start cataloging what was hurting him. His head felt like it was being hammered on with a sledge hammer. His cheek and tongue felt swollen on the left side and it hurt to even try to twitch the muscles in his face. He could feel his pulse beating behind his eyes and in the side of his neck. 

But despite all of the pain he seemed extraordinarily loose limbed. 

Then after a few seconds his mind registered the fact that Andreas had sedated him to put him to sleep, that way he wouldn’t be awake after he started the procedure. 

Distantly he could hear the sound of what must have been Frank moving out of the room, presumably up the stairs to whatever observation room was above them. He tried to open his eyes again but after a few seconds it proved to still be a bad idea as it brought the pain back tenfold. It also had the downfall of managing to draw Andreas’ attention away from whatever he had been doing. 

“Well look who finally decided to wake up.” Andreas said softly as he pushed the rolling stool away from the tray and over towards Jim’s chair. “Now that you’re awake again we can go ahead and finish what I started before.” 

“I’ve already went ahead and drilled a hole into one of your left mandible molars and now since your father is here we are going to go ahead with the rest of the procedure.” Andreas picked up the set of tweezers and grabbed something with them. When he turned around to face Jim, Jim could see that there was what looked like a small chip in between the edges of the tweezers. 

Andreas took a hold of the bottom of Jim’s jaw and with the other hand he moved the tweezers into Jim’s mouth. Jim could feel the movement as Andreas let the chip drop down into the hole in his tooth and it was followed by the feeling of the tweezers pushing the chip further down and into place. 

Once he was done fiddling around with the chip and making sure it was in place he turned back around to start rummaging through the tools he had splayed out on his tray. “Alright, now that the chip is in place all I need to do is seal it in, it’ll be just like filling a cavity!” Andreas chuckled as he spun his chair back to face the tray again. 

Andreas had a small syringe like tool in his hand when he turned back again. He used that to fill in whatever gap was left between Jim’s teeth and the chip that had been put in it. When he was done filling in the tooth he leaned back and set the syringe down. “There we go. Now that’ll need a few minutes to solidify and then we’ll be all set to finish up and get you out of here.” 

Andrea hummed to himself as he used a pen light and a small mirror to see inside Jim’s mouth and make sure everything was going okay. 

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret Jim. I’ve never actually done this procedure before, or at least I’ve never done it on a human. But it’s a simple enough procedure to do.” Andreas ran his hands over the firm flesh of Jim’s thigh absentmindedly as he rambled on. “I’m sure you're dying to know what exactly I’ve done to you. That chip, the one I put in your tooth, is filled with a chemical. Now by itself that chemical is harmless. It would almost be like taking a sugar pill.” 

“But I’m not using that chemical by itself. Once your filling has solidified I will be injecting you with another chemical. One that, when combined with the first chemical, will change the chemical makeup of your brain.” At that Jim started to try to thrash in the chair. It was mostly useless, as whatever hypo Andreas had given him earlier was still mostly wreaking havoc on his body. “It won’t be anything too drastic, so don’t worry about that. You’ll still be you. You’ll just be a slightly different you. Instead of being all cagey and constantly wanting to fight like you have been, you’ll be as sweet and as docile as a newborn fawn is with its mother.” 

Jim sent his worst glare towards Andreas. Which very obviously didn’t have the effect that he wanted it to have because Andreas simply began chuckling at him. “See? That right there. That will be gone. You won’t feel the need to fight, to argue, to lead. All you’ll ever want is to be happy by your father’s side. Doesn’t that sound nice? To just let go and let someone else take control, to let someone else be the driving force of your happiness, you will never have to make a decision on your own again.” 

Jim tried to talk around the gag in his mouth, a feat which was proving itself extremely difficult, the sounds just kept coming out as a bunch of slurred garbage that had basically no meaning. He tried to tell Andreas to let him go, that he sure as hell didn’t want to be turned into what sounded like a choiceless slave to Frank. He didn’t want Frank to have control over him, to make decisions for him or lead him wherever he may want to go. 

He wanted to go home.

He wanted Bones and The Enterprise. 

He wanted to be around his friends again. He wanted to spend the first few hours after a shift doing paperwork beside his boyfriend and spend an hour or two playing chess with Spock. He wanted to help Scotty and Chekov find new ways to improve upon the perfection of The Enterprise. He wanted to sit on the bridge in his captain’s chair and watch the stars go by as he joked with Sulu and playfully harassed Uhura. 

He wanted nights spent sparring in the gym or learning new languages or playing poker. 

He wanted to go home. 

It took all the strength Jim had to keep the tears of anger from welling up in his eyes as the reality of what was happening finally set in. He was far from home, from his friends. Stuck with strangers who weren’t really strangers at all, on the brink of losing everything he had built since he left Riverside for the last time to join StarFleet. There was a chance that he wouldn’t be able to get out of this. There was a chance that soon enough he wouldn’t even _want_ to get out of it if what Andreas was saying was true. 

“It’ll all work out in the end, Jimmy. Don’t you worry.” Andreas crooned, he had a hypo spray in his hand and Jim increased his attempts at thrashing around, all rational thought beyond ‘ _Don’t let him inject you with that!_ ’ faded as the hypospray made its descent towards his mouth. He could feel the skin of his wrists and ankles start to tear and chafe as he finally powered through whatever sedative Andreas had gave him and started violently thrashing against his restraints. 

He bit down as hard as he could on the rubber in his mouth as he thrashed but much like the manacles around his limbs the rubber didn’t budge. Andreas had one hand firmly gripping the bottom of Jim’s chin, trying to straighten out his jaw and get control of his thrashing so that he could finish administering the hypo. 

“Calm down, Jim. Everything is going to be fine.” 

“Jack! What the hell is taking so long? You said you would be done in 20 minutes and that was almost three and a half hours ago.” Frank growled as he stormed down the stairs from the observation room. “I need to get going before the girl wakes back up and starts causing me more problems.”

“Yes, well I had to wait for him to wake up and I wasn’t really expecting him to be fighting me so much.” Andreas hissed out through gritted teeth as he tried to hold Jim’s head steady against his thrashing. “He never used to be this much trouble.” 

Frank just grunted at him and moved to stand behind the chair. Without hesitating he grabbed a hold of either side of Jim’s head and forced him to hold his head still, the rubber block in his mouth keeping it open so that Andreas could quickly stab the hypo into his gum line right below the tooth he had drilled into. 

Jim whined, partially because of the pain but mostly because he knew there was no helping him now. 

“How long should the drugs take to mix and start affecting him?” Frank asked irritably.

Andreas threw the hypo onto the tray and turned to face Frank as he snapped off the gloves he had been wearing. “It will take 30 minutes to an hour for the drugs to fully mix with each other and bind together. After that it should only take 10 maybe 20 minutes for the changes in brain chemistry to start, though it could be longer since I haven’t actually done this on a human before.” 

Frank nodded. “Okay. Help me get him and the girl into the car and I’ll be out of your hair.”

Andreas turned to stare at him incredulously. “You can’t leave yet.” 

“Why the hell not?”

“I just said that I’ve never tried this on a human before. I’m going to need to monitor him to make sure everything goes as it should.” 

“It’s already 3:30 in the afternoon, Jack! I need to leave soon. I can’t hang around here with him until 4 or 4:30!”

Andreas stood to his full height and rounded around to face Frank. “Well you are going to have to. His immune system is shit as it is and I need to make sure this actually works and doesn’t cause enough brain damage to turn him into a vegetable. As soon as the chemicals have mixed and start to be absorbed without a problem you can go.” 

Frank scrubbed his hands through his hair and released a growl before throwing his hands in the air and turning back towards the observation door. “Fine. Do whatever you need. Just give me enough sedative to put this brat to sleep until I can leave.” 

Andreas pointed over towards one of the sealed cabinets along the edge of the room. “There's a hypo spray in that cabinet that’ll help her sleep for another 45 minutes.”

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1630 hours (4:30pm), Third Afternoon of Shoreleave (Jim POV); Scene takes place shortly after Pike leave the room from Debriefing the Admirals about Locke’s death._

 

“Is he done now?” 

Andreas sighed at the question. This was only the seventh time Frank had come down and asked him if the procedure was done. “Technically no.”

“What do you mean technically?”

“I mean that the chemicals have finished mixing together but they haven’t fully started altering his brain chemistry.”

 

“You said it would take an hour at the most! It’s already been a fucking hour, Jack!” 

Andreas started rubbing his temples. “I said that it would take 30 minutes for the chemicals to mix and then - “

“And then another 10 to 20 minutes for it to change his chemistry.” 

“I also said that it could take longer, since I don’t have a completely accurate time frame! Like I said before I’ve never done this on a human. I’ve only ever tried it on small mammals, the largest of which was a pig. That only took 20 minutes but since the human body is much bigger and more complex chances are it will take longer. I told you that going in to this when you first asked me to work on theorizing this procedure.” 

Frank’s face twitched, his hands were clenching and unclenching in a clear sign of his irritation at the situation. “In your opinion, how long do you think it will take for Jimmy?” He hissed through clenched teeth.

“Given how slowly it’s progressing right now, I’d say chances are you won’t begin to see an actual change for another four to five hours. There might be some minor changes - he might not fight back on certain things, he might be a bit more submissive overall the closer you get to that four hour mark but it won’t be very noticeable until right around five hours.” 

“But it has started?”

“Yes -”

“Then I’m taking him and the girl and leaving. I’ll handle him until the five hour mark.”

“Frank -” Andreas tried to cut in. 

“You said you needed to make sure that it wouldn’t turn him into a vegetable. The chemicals have started to absorb and they haven’t had any negative effects. They are just moving slower than you originally intended, which means I can take him and leave because if they were going to damage him it would have already happened.” 

Frank moved over to the stairwell to the observation room before Andreas could say anything else and quickly jogged up the stairs two at a time. A minute later he reappeared in thundering footsteps as he practically kicked the door open with a groggy but somewhat conscious Joanna tied up and held securely in his arms. He stepped around both Andreas and the chair that Jim was on to make his way over to the door that lead out to the front lobby. Andreas groaned in aggravation and stormed out after him. 

Jim however, took the time that both of them were out of the room to try and consolidate his thoughts. According to Andreas he had only about four and a half to five hours before he because a mindless little fawn for Frank to do with as he pleased. And judging by how Andreas was going on about the chemicals changing his actual brain chemistry, well Jim didn’t really need to be a genius to figure out that changing someone's brains chemistry was most likely going to be permanent. 

Which means he had only one thing to think about now and that was finding some way to get Joanna out of Frank’s horrific little paws. 

He might not be able to save himself anymore but he could sure as hell find a way to get Joanna out of harm's way within the next five hours. There wasn’t much he was able to do in Andreas’ office, not with him restrained the way he was. Even if he did manage to get out of the steel manacles that were currently restraining him, there was no way for him to get around Frank and Andreas and still get to Joanna before they either caught him or moved Joanna out of his reach.

Which left either finding a way to set her free during the transportation to wherever Frank was taking them next or waiting until they reached their next destination and hoping that there is would be an opening. 

Jim mulled over the options in his head for a few seconds, trying to weigh the pros and cons of each option through the fog that was slowly overtaking his mind. 

If he waited until they reached their next destination he would be running the risk of having them arrive only to find that Frank had taken them to some place that had either another person or multiple other people, which considering both Jim and Joanna were restrained meant that it would be nearly impossible for Jim to free Joanna and have her actually get away. By waiting he would also run the risk of having them arrive at a place that Joanna couldn’t conceivably get out of. The girl was smart, resourceful and wise beyond her nine years of age, that was definitely true, but there were definitely places that even someone as resourceful as Joanna couldn’t find their way out of on their own. 

That didn’t even mention the fact that it was entirely possible that Frank had no intentions of taking them to the same place. He could easily drop Joanna of somewhere or leave her with someone and Jim would have lost his chance to save her because he waited to long. 

So in reality, Jim really only had one choice if he wanted to get Joanna out of this. And that was to allow her the chance to escape at some point during transit. Hopefully he would be able to get her the opening to escape pretty soon after they started their journey because for all he knew Frank could just be taking them down the road. 

It made more sense to have an escape attempt during transit anyway. In the brief glimpse of Joanna he had seen before Frank had taken her out the door, he had seen that she wasn’t tied up anywhere near as securely as he was. 

‘ _Frank probably thinks she isn’t that big of a threat._ ’ He thought to himself with a grin, he knew how dangerous that little girl could be if she really felt the need to be.

The whole time he had been tied up, he had been forced into a curled up ball with his arms behind his back and his wrists pinned down by his forearms, making him untying the ropes or unbuckling the straps almost completely impossible. But Joanna’s hands had been simply tied at the wrist in front of her stomach, she couldn’t undo her own ropes, but she could theoretically use her hands to undo whatever bindings Frank ended up putting on him. 

Jim jumped slightly as Andreas’ stomping startled him out of his planning. The older man looked more like a storm cloud than a person as he stomped into the room, a patch of red swollen skin marring the left side of his face with what would probably end up being a pretty bad bruise later on. 

Frank followed him shortly thereafter, swiftly moving through the room to stand face to face with Jim. “You get the block out of his mouth while I retie his feet.” 

Andreas simply nodded and moved forward to start trying to wedge the rubber block out of his mouth. He could feel Frank buckle one of the leather strips around his knees, cinching the buckle tight until he couldn’t so much as wiggle his knees apart. Once he was sure that strap was firmly in place he moved on to release one of his ankles from the manacles. As soon as the manacle was undone Frank grabbed a hold of his free ankle, preventing him from kicking him while he flicked the other manacle open. 

It wasn’t hard for Frank to then grasp both of Jim’s ankles in one hand while he used the other to fasten the leather bindings around the thinnest part of his ankle. Andreas finally managed to pull the block free from his mouth, prompting Jim to immediately click his jaw shut in an attempt to soothe the painfully cramped muscles in his jaw. It didn’t work as well as he had hoped though because the sudden movement caused his jaw muscles to spasm. And it truly didn’t make any difference since Frank took advantage of his lack of control over his jaw and quickly shoved his gag back between his lips. 

Frank stood up, grabbing Jim by his hips as he went and pulling him forward until his feet rested on the ground and his ass was on the edge of the chair. “Come around here and hold him still while I retie his arms.”

Andreas just nodded and quickly shuffled around the chair, taking a hold of Jim’s chest in a way that was essentially hugging him from behind. Frank made quick work of his arms, pulling them from the manacles and pinning them down against his back. The straps were once again placed around each wrist, keeping the held tightly against each of his elbows. Andreas, of course, made sure to keep him almost completely immobile, using his bulk to subdue Jim’s thrashing enough that Frank could bind him. 

Jim couldn’t stop himself from growling as Frank went to pick him up again, which earned him several sharp smacks on the back of his thighs. “Stop that, Jimmy.”

Jim did his best to sneer at Frank and gave a severely muffled ‘Fuck you’.

Frank’s face morphed into something hideous and infuriated before quickly settling into a smirk. “Don’t worry, Jimmy. In four to five hours you won’t ever want to leave me again. So I’ve changed my mind, you can fight and fuss all you want for the next four to five hours, since you won’t ever be doing it again.” He cooed mockingly, the tip of his index finger tracing lightly of Jim’s cheek bones. 

“Go Fuck Yourself.” He ground out, trying his hardest to form the words around the gag in his mouth and for the most part he was successful. 

“Now why would I do that when I can take your advice from earlier and fuck you? But that’ll come later, once you're all nice and willing to spread your pretty legs for me.” Frank effectively ended the conversation by lifting Jim up and into his arms, much like Don had done earlier and started walking out through the door and to the parking lot. 

When they got out into the parking lot Jim took a quick and hopefully discreet look around to see what was going on in his surroundings. He could see the car that Frank had stolen from Katie Bensler as well as a car he had never seen before, which meant Frank had either stolen it after bringing Joanna here or it was Dr. Andreas’ and they were using it to throw any potential followers off their trail. 

Judging by how antsy Andreas was currently acting as they walked to the car, it was probably his car they were being stuffed into. Frank walked over and threw open the trunk, revealing the writhing form of Joanna trying to get out of her restraints. 

Jim’s eyes widened and he let out a muffled shout. Knowing she was there and actually being able to see her, panicking and trying to escape, were two very different things and no amount of planning had prepared him for the sight of Joanna with tears slipping down her cheeks trying desperately to get out of the ropes that were restraining her. 

“Don’t worry, Jimmy. The two of you will have quite a bit of time to get reacquainted where we are going.” With that, Frank laid Jim in the trunk next to Joanna and started to close the trunk but not before he gently stroked his hand down Jim’s face. “I’ll see you two later.”

Jim watched as he shut the trunk of the car, leaving both Jim and Joanna in almost complete darkness. Distantly he heard Frank tell Andreas to keep his mouth shut about the three of them being at his practice followed by the sound of footsteps on pavement and then the car door opening and slamming shut. 

He waited until the car was started and moving down the street before he rolled over to face Joanna. Or at least he hoped he was facing Joanna, it was hard to tell in the darkness of the trunk. 

“Jim?”

“Mmph” He tried to answer back. 

There was a few seconds of confused silence before she whispered to him. “Do you have a plan to get us out of here?” 

Jim rolled a bit closer until he could feel his cheek resting against her arm, then he made an exaggerated nodding motion. 

Joanna sucked in a short but relieved breath. “What do you need me to do?”

He turned his head until the ball part of his gag rested against the skin of her arm and repeated the motion from before. 

‘Get the gag off?” 

With another exaggerated nod he rolled back over so that the clasp of the gag was facing her. He heard her scooch across the carpeting before he felt her fingers clumsily hit the back of his head. She fumbled in the dark with the clasp for nearly a minute until it finally came undone. Jim breathed a sigh of gratitude and quickly shook his head until the gag finally fell out of his mouth and skittered across the floor. 

“Did he hurt you?” He asked. He had to know. 

“Jim -”

“Joanna. Please, I need to know. Did. He. Hurt. You?” 

“He hit me on the cheek when I tried to escape.” She said softly. “But nothing else! I promise.”   
Jim quickly released the breath he had been holding in. He didn’t think he would be able to handle it if Frank had actually _hurt_ her. That would have destroyed him. 

“Alright, JoJo. I need you to untie my hands. There are two leather straps with buckles at either end of both of my elbows. Then there's a strap in the middle holding my forearms together. Once you get those three undone you’ll have to reach up about three inches and undo the strap that's holding my arms to my back. Okay?” 

“Yeah, I’ve got it.” 

About a minute later she had his arms free and he quickly rolled to face her and undo the ropes that were restraining her wrists. She gratefully started rubbing her wrists to get the circulation going again. While she was doing that he leaned down and deftly tore the straps from his legs and ankles as well as tearing apart the ropes that held Joanna’s ankles together. 

“So what’s the plan?” She said seriously her words slightly muffled from where her head was pressed against his bare chest, she had moved to put her arms around Jim’s chest in a hug as soon as he had leaned back up. Jim was thankful for the fact that the trunk of the car was dark because he sure as hell didn’t want to be responsible for Joanna seeing him naked, not that she hadn’t already from when Frank had first put him in the car but still. He didn’t want to scar the girl any further than this experience already would. 

“The plan is to get you the hell out of here and back to your dad.” 

She pulled back away from him and stared at him incredulously. “You’re not coming with me?” Her voice was little more than a horrified whisper. “No. No, you have to come with me. We’ll escape together.” She said fiercely. The looked she gave Jim brooked no arguments and for a second all Jim could think of was the fact that Bones had that exact same look on his face whenever he showed his stubborn side. 

“Joanna. Listen -” 

“No. You listen. I’m not leaving without you.”

Jim frowned. “I will try to escape with you but if he comes after us, which he will, he is going to be coming for me first. Which means you will have more of an opportunity to escape while he's busy trying to catch me. If he does catch me -” Jim held up a hand to stop Joanna from interrupting him. “If he does catch me, you have to promise me right here, right now, that you will keep running. It doesn’t matter what he does to me or what you think he might do to me. You have to promise me that you will keep running.”

“But -” 

“No, no buts. Promise me. You will keep running until you find somewhere safe to stop. As soon as you get somewhere safe, you call your dad or Spock or Admiral Pike or anyone. Do you understand me?”

Joanna whimpered but nodded. “I promise!” She sucked in a shaky breath and then looked at him determinedly. “But you have to promise that you won’t just give up the second he starts to get close to us. You have to try your hardest to escape, not just throw yourself into the lion's den so that I can get away.” 

Jim sighed, knowing just by the look on her face that Joanna wasn’t going to let this go until he promised her, the same way he wouldn’t have budged on the subject until she had promised him that she would keep running. “I promise. I’ll keep going unless he actually catches me.” He promised and after a second of deliberation he leaned down to press a kiss to Joanna’s brown curls. 

“Jim?”

“Yes, Joanna?”

“I’m scared.” She mumbled.

“I know, Jojo. It’s okay to be scared.” Jim said with a sigh. “Do you want to know what I do when I’m scared?” 

He waited until he felt Joanna nod against his chest to continue. “I like to think of a memory, a fond memory and then I keep it in my mind until whatever is scaring me is over. Can you do that for me?” 

“Do you remember that one time, when you and daddy were home for shoreleave for four days? On the last day everyone came back to the house and you guys took me and Demora to the zoo.” Joanna murmured, her voice was full of fondness and Jim did remeber that day. The Georgian sun was beaming down on them but there had been a wonderful breeze to keep them cool and they had stopped for ice cream on the way back from the zoo. 

“You and Uncle Sulu spent most of the afternoon trying to convince Mr. Spock that it was traditional for the tallest male of the group to let the children ride on their shoulders so they can see the animals better.” She giggled softly as she remembered the look Spock had given Sulu and Jim when they had started saying that. 

Jim chuckled right along with her. Spock had been especially confused as to why that would be a Terran tradition but eventually after enough nagging he had yielded and the girls had spent the rest of the trip alternating on who got to ride on his shoulders. Everyone they passed had taken a second to stop and stare at the Vulcan once they realized he had a little girl sitting on his shoulders. 

“You know, Spock may have looked confused but he did enjoy the bonding experience or as he said ‘I find some Terran traditions to be exceedingly fascinating.’ which pretty much means it was fun as hell in Spock talk.” Jim smiled down at her but a sudden bump in the road that sent Jim crashing backwards into the side of the car with Joanna still in his arms killed any sense of joy they had managed to find as it reminded them of where they were.

“Joanna, if we are going to escape, we are going to have to do it now, alright?” Jim shimmied himself and Joanna over towards the edge of the trunk. He kept one arm around Joanna and used the other to steady himself against the side of the car. “Here's the plan. I'm going to kick out the tail light and then try to get another driver's attention. Either the driver will find a way to get Frank to stop his car or they'll probably alert the police.”

“Okay.” 

“Once he stops the car chances are he's going to open the trunk or whoever else stops will. When the trunk opens I want you to run. Run as fast as you can and don't look behind you. I'll be coming right after you.” 

Joanna nodded at him and with a deep breath he checked to make sure that he was steady against the trunk before lifting his foot and slamming it down onto the back of the tail light.

The metal of the car creaked under the strain but it didn't move at all. Another kick and the tail light shifted slightly. Finally he reared his foot back and delivered a swift, hard kick with as much force as he could. The tail light cracked and then fell off of the car with a small thunk as it hit and skittered across the road behind the car. Jim only took a second to glance out of the hole he had just made, trying to see if there was anyone driving behind them but there wasn’t anyone that he could see. 

Jim was just about to roll sideways and stick his arm out of the hole the tail light had made to try and possibly catch the attention of a driver he might not have seen when all of a sudden the car slammed to a dead stop. Jim barely restrained himself from cursing as he realized that Frank must have either heard the tail light come off or saw it hit the ground from the rear view mirror. 

“Joanna, get ready. I have a feeling he saw the tail light go flying. Get on the other side of the trunk so you can squeeze around him when he opens it.” 

Joanna nodded and scrambled across the carpet, practically throwing herself into the wheel well of the car on the other side of the trunk. Jim sucked in another deep breath and waited. 

The trunk was thrown open and Jim took a second to see where exactly Frank was before he slammed his foot straight into his stepfather's stomach. He heard Joanna clamber out of the trunk as Frank doubled over clutching his stomach. It took another second for Jim to actually react and start climbing out of the trunk as quickly as he could. He barely stopped to feel the harsh pavement of the old back road digging into his feet and he took off running, a swift glance making sure that he was running parallel to Joanna but not right alongside of her. If they were too close together he knew that Frank would somehow find a way to recapture them both. 

He ran as hard as he could, not bothering to stop and look behind him to see if Frank had started chasing after them because there was no doubt in Jim’s mind that Frank was right on their heels. Perhaps that might have been his downfall, because since he never looked behind him he never realized that Frank hadn’t decided to chase after them. 

At least not on foot. 

But Jim didn’t know that because he didn’t look behind him. In fact he didn’t realize it until the moment he heard the sounds of a motor accelerating and felt the pain of the front end of the car clipping him in the side. It hadn’t been a horrifyingly hard hit, it was more or less a tap to get him down and on the ground but it hurt all the same. He slammed into the ground and didn't get a chance to get his bearings back under him before Frank was on top of him pressing the business end of a phaser between his shoulder blades. The air was knocked from his lungs as Frank dropped down with his knee firmly planted on Jim’s back. 

“That was a bad move, Jimmy. I guess you're probably happy the brat got away but you’ve just made this much worse of yourself.” Jim heard the sound of a phaser power up and then seconds later felt the sting of a stun charge coursing threw his back, leaving him immobile and helpless on the pavement. He felt Frank pick up his ankles and start dragging him behind the car and into the cover of the trees then walk away. 

He returned shortly after making sure to drop his duffle bag right in Jim’s line of sight. “My mistake, obviously, was putting you back there with that girl. I should have kept you up front with me, well, I won’t be making that mistake again.” He growled as he yanked rope after rope after rope out of the duffle. 

‘At least I got Joanna out.’ Jim thought as he watched Frank start getting ready to tie him back up. ‘Maybe Bones will be able to get me out of this.’ 

Jim was forced to watch as Frank grabbed the ball gag out of the back of the trunk and pried his mouth apart to forcefully shove it back between his teeth and this time he followed it with another gag, though this one had a piece of firm cloth that completely covered his mouth all the way up to just below his nose, made to fully muffle any and all noises. It also had a triangle shaped set of straps that went on either side of his nose before joining back together into one strap over his forehead then that strap got attached to the back of his collar. There was another set of triangle shaped straps that framed his chin and then connected to the front of his collar. 

Once he was done gagging him, Frank moved on to start tying his arms up. He started by pulling Jim’s wrists behind his back as far as they would go and then tying them together, he made sure that Jim couldn’t undo any of the knots by forcing his hands to go palm to palm and then duct taping them together from wrist to his finger tips. He tied his elbows together to make sure that he couldn’t pull the wrist ties or the duct tape apart. 

He moved onto Jim’s legs next, tying his ankles together followed by tying his knees together. Frank grabbed a hold of the knots that were holding his knees together and shoved his knees upward until he was able to tie a rope to the knots that held his wrist together and the ones that held his knees together. When that was done he took Jim’s ankles and a long length of rope that he then threaded through a d-ring that was attached to the back of Jim’s gag. 

The end result left Jim in a painful, muscle straining hogtie that was practically impossible for him to get out of by himself. 

Frank picked Jim up and threw open the car door, he set him down on the floor in between the back and front seats and threw a blanket over top of him. Then he threw the duffel bag in so that it landed haphazardly on top of Jim’s back. With a sinister chuckle he shut the door behind him and walked to the driver's seat to start the car, continuing down the abandoned backroad like nothing had happened. It wasn’t like anyone would actually use these roads and notice the tail light missing, even if they did he would just explain it away.

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1855 hours (6:55pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Leonard POV); Scene takes place shortly after Leonard gets call about Joanna being in the hospital._

 

_“Leonard? What’s going on? Who called you?” Uhura asked as she laid a hand on Leonard’s shoulder._

_“T - That was the local Riverside hospital.”_

_“What did they want to talk to you about?”_

_“They have Joanna in their emergency room.”_

Uhura gave Leonard a flabbergasted look. “What do you mean they have Joanna in their emergency room? Do they have Kirk? Is he there with her?” She asked quickly. 

Out of the corner of his eye Leonard could see that both Pike and Spock had their attention on him as well. “I don’t know if he’s there with her or not, the woman on the phone didn’t mention anything about him.” 

“What exactly did this woman say?” Pike questioned. 

“She said that a young girl had ran into the hospital almost an hour ago and that she had been so hysterical that the nurses weren’t able to get any information out of her. They had to calm her down before they could get her to tell them her name and who she wanted them to call to come get her.” 

“They asked for someone to come get her? So she isn’t injured?” 

“She didn’t tell me that either. But if there had been any major injuries she would have disclosed that as soon as I had confirmed that I was in fact Joanna’s father.” Leonard answered.

Pike nodded and signalled Spock to pull the car over to the side of the road. 

“Why are we stopping?” 

“We need to figure out if we are going to go to the hospital and check and see if Joanna is okay or are we continuing on to go to Andreas’ clinic to find out what Frank is planning.” 

Uhura frowned at Pike’s answer. “What do you mean we have to decide? Chances are Kirk is going to be with Joanna, you know he wouldn’t have let her run off on his own!” She hotly. “And Joanna needs her father! She was just kidnapped!”

“Uhura, I’m not saying that Joanna doesn’t need her father. What I’m saying is that it is entirely possible that Jim isn’t with her, and if he isn’t we need to find out where he is so that we can help him.” 

“I don’t think Jim would have let Joanna go off on her own!” 

Spock turned to look at the backseat. “We have very little actual facts on Frank’s behavior. As such it is entirely possible that Jim had no opportunity to go with Joanna when she escaped.” He said softly. “She could have escaped before Frank got back to where Jim was or Jim could have helped her escape and stayed behind to ensure that Frank did not attempt to recapture her.”

“So you think we should continue on to Andreas’ and not go get Joanna, Spock?” 

“Quite the contrary, Lieutenant. We know for a fact that Joanna has been with Frank. We also know for a fact that she will talk to us and give us any information she has on where Frank might have taken Jim and possibly what Jim’s status was in the event that she had seen him. Since we can not ensure that Dr. Andreas will be forth coming with any information or even that he is in fact at his practice, it is only logical to question the sources that will give us answers first.” Spock glanced over towards Pike and after receiving a nod he started the car and headed back towards the road. 

“Uhura, pull up a set of directions to Riverside County hospital.” Uhura nodded and quickly set about getting directions.

Leonard pulled out his communicator and quickly typed in a code. 

“McCoy, who are you calling?” Pike asked when he looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Leonard had taken his communicator out again. 

“I’m calling Jocelyn. We may be going to Joanna but I honestly doubt Jim is there with her and that means that we are still going to have to be searching for him. Joanna will need someone to stay with her and I’m not entrusting her to some random StarFleet security officer.” He said tersely as he waited for his ex-wife to pick up her comm unit. 

“Doctor, if I may ask, why are you convinced that the Captain is not with Miss Joanna?” 

Leonard held up a hand, signalling for Spock to hold on as he talked into his communicator. “Jocelyn. Listen, I need you to get on the first shuttle to Riverside, Iowa that you can.” He paused. “Yes, I’m serious!” 

Everyone in the car could hear Jocelyn’s shrill voice over the comm unit even though it was pressed against Leonard’s ear, they couldn’t completely distinguish what she was saying but they could hear her basically yelling at Leonard. 

Leonard’s face just kept growing more and more irritated by the second. “Jocelyn, our daughter is in a hospital in Riverside right now.” He hissed. “I only called you because she’s your daughter as much as she is mine and she needs someone to be there with her. Now either you can get your ass down here or I’ll call my Mama and get her to come down and stay with Joanna.” 

There was a few more screeched words that came over the comm, then Leonard growled. “Why didn’t I - Woman, I was tryin’ ta tell you why the hell you needed ta be here but you never fuckin’ let me finish! If you would’a given me two more fuckin’ seconds before jumpin’ down my damn throat I would’a finished explain’!” Leonard’s southern drawl was more pronounced than it had ever been as he yelled through the comm at his ex-wife. 

Jocelyn must had said something that ended the call or perhaps she just hung up on him but either way a few seconds later he was snapping the communicator shut with a huff. 

“Doctor?” 

Leonard took a deep breath in. “Anyway, the reason I doubt Jim is there is because he would have called me if he was. Even if he was severely injured, hell even if he was on the brink of death that infant wouldn’t have let himself die until he knew that I was aware of where Joanna was and that she was uninjured or being treated for any injuries. He wouldn’t have let a nurse call me and tell me my daughter was in the hospital.”

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1710 hours (5:10pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Joanna POV); Scene takes place shortly before Leonard and Co. investigate Locke’s car/ Shortly after Jim helps Joanna escape._

 

Joanna was running as fast as her little legs could take her. She didn’t know how long she had been running for and truthfully she had no idea where she was running to. All she knew was that she had to get somewhere safe. That was what she had promised Jim, to keep running until she found somewhere that she could call her dad. 

The thought of Jim brought tears to her eyes and she had to stop herself from outright sobbing as she thought about him, it wouldn’t help her to start hyperventilating now. She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to Jim but she knew that he was no longer running with her, which had meant that he had most likely gotten recaptured. She had thought that she had heard the sound of a car coming up beside them but she had been a bit ahead and to the side of Jim when she had heard it and she didn’t take the chance to look back. 

Her feet hurt and her lungs burned something fierce but she hadn’t even made it back to civilization yet. Joanna could see lights off in the distance, which at the very least meant that she was near someone's house or a populated road. Maybe she could get help there. 

She kept running until the rough dirt road under her feet turned into pavement and she found herself on a road lit by dim streetlights. But on the other side of the streets there were buildings, most of them were closed, but they were buildings all the same. Buildings meant a town and a town meant people, people who could probably help her, people who could possibly help Jim. 

She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, the early January air was frigid against her skin, especially now that the sun was starting to dip lower and lower in the sky. Joanna slowed to a walk as she limped down the road. Now that she was in a town and able to slow down all the aches and pains from running barefoot across dirt and gravel were starting to creep into her senses. 

Joanna shivered as she turned the corner of the street, hoping to find someone that could at least point her in the direction of a hospital or a police station. At this point she would even duck into a shop just to get warm and get some kind of help. But everywhere she turned was just closed, darkened buildings. 

Frustrated she spun around and was about to go back to hopefully find a different cross street that might actually have some open stores or some houses when something cause her eyes. 

There. 

On the corner of the street about a mile away from her was a glowing entrance sign. It said ‘ambulances only’ but that meant that it was a hospital. 

Her energy suddenly renewed she took off running down the street, somehow able to ignore the stinging pain in her feet now that she might have found salvation. She weaved her way around the street signs and nearly tripped over the curb but she made in onto the pavement. A quick glance around showed her that the entrance to the emergency room was up the hill and to the left a bit. Joanna stumbled up the incline desperate enough to get inside that she didn’t even pay attention when she crossed the street, a car slammed on it’s brakes behind her and laid on its horn but it was simply white noise in the back of her mind. 

The blast of warmth against her face and body once the door swished open in front of her was a welcomed feeling and the nine year old rejoiced at having been able to keep her promise to Jim. Once again the thought of Jim floored her. 

But this time she couldn’t stop the tears that streamed down her face or the silent sobs that wracked her small frame. She started shaking horribly as he mind actually registered the fact that Jim was still with the man who kidnapped her. 

“Hello, sweetie.” A woman in a nurses uniform said soothingly. She was walking towards her cautiously, like she was a frightened animal that she didn’t want to scare off. “Is there something we can help you with?’ 

The soft, calming tone of the ladies voice only make her sob harder and her sobs quickly turned into gasps for breath as she started hyperventilating. 

The woman quickly knelt down next to her and rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay sweetie, it’s alright. It’s positively frigid outside, you must be freezing.” She cooed. “Why don’t we go into an exam room and see if we can get you warmed up, doesn’t that sound good.” 

Joanna barely heard the pacifying words, to consumed by the thought of what might be happening to Jim as she covered her face with her hands and dropped down to sit on the floor. 

“Shh, Hey, Hey, it’s okay sweetheart. You’re alright I promise.” The nurse sat down the floor next to her and started running a soothing hand along her back, trying to calm her down enough to get her to stand back up and move. “Can you tell me your name, sweetheart?” 

Another nurse, drawn by the sound of Joanna’s sobs came over to the pair of them. “Clara? Is she alright?” 

“I’m not sure.” She answered softly. “She came running in and when I asked her if she was alright she just started sobbing and fell to the floor.”

“Her feet are bleeding, we should move her into another room. That might help her calm down a bit, maybe she’ll tell us what’s wrong.” The other nurse moved forward, placing her hand gently of Joanna’s shoulder. “Hello, there. My name is Becca. Is it alright if one of us picks you up?” 

Joanna was desperately trying to calm herself down, she was practically ignoring the women in front of her, trying to think of what Jim taught her to do whenever she was upset. Her brain seemed like it was going a mile a minute as she tried to remember how Jim’s breathing techniques went. 

Breath in for four seconds. Hold it in and count to seven. Breathe out for four seconds. 

Repeat. 

Breath in. Hold it. Breath out. 

She could hear Jim’s voice in her head, leading her through the exercise, just like he had the first time he taught it to her when she had been anxious about going into space for the first time. She remembered how he had chuckled and said that her daddy had the same problem and that he knew something that would help her feel calmer during the trip. She forced herself to close her eyes and focus on the memory, on the sound of his voice and how proud her daddy was when she told him what Jim had taught her. 

Breath in. Hold it. Breathe out. 

Repeat. 

When she opened her eyes again she was still hiccuping and gasping every once in awhile but she was no longer hyperventilating. She looked up and saw that two nurses were watching her, obviously waiting for her to respond to them. 

“Sweetie? Is it alright if we take you into an exam room?” The nurse asked again. 

Joanna nodded and lifted up her arms, allowing the nurse to grab her under her arms and lift her up onto her hip. The two nurses walked her towards the back of the lobby and through a door to a secluded exam room. Clara set her down on the biobed and set about finding a tri-corder to scan her with. 

Becca came over to Joanna and leant down with a smile. “Can you tell me your name, honey?”

“J-Joanna.” 

“What about your last name?” She asked sweetly.

“It’s M-McCoy. My daddy is a d-doctor with StarF-Fleet.” She hiccupped and took another deep breath, trying to calm herself down enough that she stopped stuttering. 

Becca nodded at her and jotted something down on the PADD she was holding. “Alright, Joanna. Can you tell me your daddy’s first name so we can try and have someone contact him?” 

“His first name is Leonard.” Joanna answered quietly. 

Becca gave her an encouraging smile. “And where do you live?”

“Greenbriar, Georgia. It’s r-right outside of Atlanta.” 

Becca had a shocked look on her face, but before she could say anything in response, Clara had walked back in with a tri-corder and two small dermal regenerators. 

“Alright, sweetie. I’m just go ahead and strap this one your feet and they’ll heal those scratches right up. You’ll be up and running around in no time!” Clara announced cheerfully. She strapped the dermal regenerators to each of Joanna’s feet. 

“Clara.” Becca whispered. “We need to talk outside real quick.” 

Clara nodded while keeping her cheerful smile on in front of Joanna. “Alright, sweetie. Becca and I need to talk for a minute or two but we’ll be right outside. Just give us a shout if you need anything!” 

Once they saw that Joanna had nodded to let them know she had heard them the two nurses stepped out of the room, waiting until the door to the room had swished closed behind them before turning to each other. 

“Did she tell you her name?” Clara asked. 

“Yeah, she did. Her name is Joanna McCoy, her father is apparently a doctor with StarFleet.” 

Clara tilted her head to the side in confusion. “A doctor with StarFleet? I don’t know any doctors around here with the last name McCoy and who have joined StarFleet.”

“She’s not from around here, she told me that she lives in Greenbriar, Georgia.” 

“Georgia! What the hell is she doing all the way out here in Riverside if she lives in Georgia?” Clara said incredulously. 

“I don’t know.” Becca said seriously. “I was about to ask her before you walked in.”   
Clara pursed her lips and turned to look back at the doors leading into Joanna’s exam room. “How about you go ahead back in there with her and I’ll got to the front desk and see if I can get a hold of her father. Maybe he’s around here and she came with him and got lost or something.”

“Okay. I’ll try and see if she will tell me how she got to Iowa and why she came running into a hospital with no shoes, no one with her and immediately broke down crying when she got here.” 

They parted with little more than a nod and Becca turned to walk through the doors, hoping to figure out how this little girl had gotten to them all the way from Georgia. 

“Joanna?”

Joanna looked up from where she had been watching the dermal regenerators knit her skin back together and watched as Becca approached her. 

“Can you tell me how you got to Riverside?”

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 0100 hours (7:00pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Leonard POV); Scene takes place fifteen minutes after the nurse calls Leonard and an hour and fifteen minutes after Joanna first gets to the hospital_

 

Leonard barely gave Spock time to stop the car before he was bolting out of the backseat and up the hill that led to the hospital. He tore across the crosswalk and didn’t give a shit about the man who blew his horn at him. All that was on his mind was getting to his daughter and making sure she was okay. 

He ran through the door, nearly knocking over two nurses, and sprinted up to the front desk. 

The man who was sitting behind the desk looked at him like he was a maniac and he probably looked like he was one with the way he had come through the door like a bat out of hell. 

“Can I help you, sir?” The receptionist asked cautiously. 

“My daughter. She came into the emergency room about an hour ago. I need to see her.” He said rapidly.

“What’s her name?”

Leonard panted, out of breath from running so fast. “Her name is Joanna McCoy. A nurse called me to tell me she was here, uh Nurse Clara. She’s the one who called me.” 

“Alright, just give me a minute to see what room she’s in.” The receptionist quickly typed in Joanna’s name and started scrolling through the patient list. “Here it is. She was just moved from the emergency room over to an overnight pediatric patient room. She is in room 497.” 

“How do I get to that room?” Leonard asked. 

The receptionist spun his chair around and pointed down a hallway off to the left of the lobby. “If you go down that hallway it connects to the main hospital. They’ll be a turbolift directly behind the front reception desk in the lobby. Just take the turbolift to the pediatric ward and from there you’ll see some signs pointing you in the direction of the right room number.” He said politely. 

“Thank you.” Leonard said graciously, he had already begun to move away when he remembered something else. “Excuse me, there's going to be two men and a lady coming through here in the next few minutes, they are with me but they had to park the car.”

The receptionist smiled at him. “I’ll send them your way once they get in here.”

“Thanks.” 

Leonard jogged down the hallway, he only slowed down once he made it to the main hospital's lobby and he quickly turned and made his way towards the turbolift. It took a minute or two before the turbolift actually stopped at the main floor but as soon as the doors swished open he darted inside and called out for the lift to take him to the pediatric ward. He bounced back and forth on his heels as he waited for the turbolift to take him where he wanted to go. 

The ride may have only been a few seconds but it felt like a lifetime. 

As he stepped out of the lift he glanced around to make sure there weren’t any nurses or doctors in the hallway before he took off running, not caring about the fact that you shouldn’t really run in a hospital. He glanced at the walls to make sure that he was headed in the right direction. 

Finally he got to the end of the hallway where the door number in the later 400’s. He slowed himself to a light jog so that he could catch his breath and not seem like a madman when he found his daughter's room. When Leonard came upon the door that was numbered 497 he stopped and took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare himself to find his daughter, in whatever state she may be in. 

He hit the call button on the door panel and waited with baited breath to be allowed to enter. The doors slid open and he could have cried as he saw the sweet face of his young daughter. Joanna immediately jumped off the biobed and sprinted over to him as soon as she saw who had opened the door. 

He dropped down on his knees and caught her around the middle, he wrapped his arms around his daughter firmly. He rocked the both of them back and forth slowly, listening to Joanna’s soft sobs and trying to keep himself from crying with her. His daughter needed him to be strong, she didn’t need to see him crying.

Joanna was gripping the back of his uniform shirt in her little hand so hard that Leonard could feel the fabric stretching to the point of almost ripping. Her little body was completely shaking in his arms.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” He crooned, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back. “You’re alright. I’ve gotcha, babydoll.” 

“I’m sorry.” Joanna sobbed. “I’m sorry.” 

Leonard’s brow furrowed in confusion as Joanna’s words finally became coherent enough for him to understand what she was saying. “Baby, why are you sorry. You haven’t done anything wrong.” 

Joanna didn’t respond, instead she hid her face in Leonard’s neck as her sobs died down to hiccups. 

“Baby, why are you sorry?” He asked again. He put on the best ‘stern dad’ face he could muster given the situation.

“I tried to get him to come with me I swear!” 

“Who, baby? Who did you try to get to come with you.?” 

“Jim!” She cried. “I made him promise to run with me.” She looked like she wanted to say more but she was unable to talk as the sobs came back even worse, stealing her breath from her as she started hyperventilating hysterically. 

Joanna threw her hands up over her eyes and started rocking herself back and forth in her father's arms. Leonard tried his best to calm her down, running his hand up and down her back and her arms, whispering soothing words in her ear. He kept himself moving with the motion that she had picked up, swaying back and forth slowly. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“I-I t-t-tried!” She wailed. 

“I know. I know, Joanna, it’s alright.” 

Slowly but surely Joanna was calming down as the crying wore her energy out, Leonard kept his tight hold on her anyway, unwilling to let her go. He heard three sets of footsteps hurrying towards him before Spock, Pike and Uhura actually rounded the door into the room. Uhura drew in a soft gasp as he glanced back at her and it was in that moment that he realized he had actually been crying. 

Joanna finally settled down enough that Leonard felt comfortable letting go of her. He gripped her by the shoulders and gently pushed her far enough away from him that he could get a clear look at her face. 

“Joanna, when you said that you tried to get Jim to come with you what did you mean?” He asked seriously. 

Joanna sniffled and avoided looking him in the eyes. “He s-said he had a plan to help me e-escape, that a-all I had to do was r-run when he got the t-trunk open.” 

“The trunk?” Uhura had a look of horror on her face. “What do you mean the trunk.” 

“Frank said it was time to leave and he carried me outside and put me in the trunk of h-his car. A few minutes later he came out with Jim and put him in t-there with me.” Joanna said. 

Spock stepped forward and gracefully sat down on the floor next to where Leonard and Joanna were. “Joanna, I am aware that what I asked of you will be mentally and emotionally distressing, but we need you to tell us everything you remember about what happened to you.”

Joanna glanced back at her father and once he gave her a slow nod she turned to face Spock and the others. “I went to school this morning, mama dropped me off and told me that daddy was going to pick me up. But like an hour later my teacher told me to head up to the main office because someone from my daddy's work was here to take me home, when I got to the office a man in a uniform told me he was taking me home.”

“I didn't really wanna go with him but he had on a StarFleet uniform and I really wanted to see daddy and Jim.” At that she hesitated and bit her bottom lip. Tears welled up in her eyes but she stubbornly brushed them away. “Daddy told me never to go anywhere with a stranger but sometimes when I'm supposed to spend shoreleave with daddy and Jim, Jim will come and pick me up early and take me out to lunch before calling daddy and saying that he was heading to pick me up. I thought that's what was happening so that's why I went with Frank.” 

After a minute or two of tense silence Leonard gave her an encouraging nod and rubbed her back to get her to continue on with her story. 

When she didn't continue Pike stepped forward and knelt down next to her. “We saw security footage of what happened once you got to the parking lot, Joanna. Can you tell us what Frank was talking about as you were walking?” He asked her politely with a smile.

“He was talking to me about Jim, about how he was as when he was younger than me and how wonderful it was to be able to hold him again, but he kept calling him Jimmy and Jim hates it when people call him that. I asked him why he was so excited about seeing him again if he worked with him all the time.” 

“He looked at me like he was confused for a second before he looked down at his uniform and then he tried to change the conversation back to talking about Jim. When I asked him again he started to get angry with me.” She said quietly. “Jim says that anytime someone tries to avoid a certain topic it's because they would have to lie about it to get you to believe them. So I punched him like Jim showed me how to and then I started running but he caught me.”

“What happened after he caught up to you?” 

Joanna trembled at that question, turning to wrap her arms firmly around her dad as she tried to muster up the courage to tell the rest of the story. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Uhura moving to sit on a nearby chair while Pike completely sat down next to Spock and Leonard. 

She released a shaky exhale. “I felt a sharp pain in my neck, then I woke up as Frank was carrying me into the building.” 

“Do you know what building he took you to?” 

“He said that Jim had a doctor's appointment so I told him that he couldn’t have a doctor's appointment because my daddy was his doctor and my daddy doesn’t really like Jim seein’ other doctors. He slapped me for talkin’ back to him.” She whispered. “Then when we got in the building he took me back through a door to an exam room, there was a man there and he had Jim strapped down to a dentist’s chair. Jim wasn’t awake, but before I could try to wake him up Frank was dragging me up the stairs. He tied me to a chair.” 

Joanna leaned back out of her father's arms and reached for a glass of water that was sitting beside the bio-bed. Uhura quickly handed it over to her and waited until she had taken a few sips before she asked her another question. “Did Frank or this...doctor hurt you?” Uhura inquired hesitantly. She almost flinched when Leonard shot her an alarmed look at the question. 

“No, not like that!” Joanna yelped. “He didn’t do anything more than slap me and the other man wasn’t a doctor.” 

When all four of the adults around her simply looked at her in confusion she quickly explained what she meant. “He said he was a doctor. Maybe he went to school to be a doctor but doctors don’t hurt people.” She had a stubborn look on her face as she turned to her father. “I saw some of what he did to Jim. A real doctor wouldn’t do that to someone.” She said with an air of finality. 

“Joanna, you said that you saw some of what they did to Jim. Can you tell us what you remember of those events?” 

The stubbornness melted away quickly at that, morphing back into the hesitant, horrified face of a traumatized nine year old girl. But surprisingly enough Joanna took a deep breath and steeled herself to recount the story of what she had saw. If she couldn’t be brave for herself maybe she could be brave for Jim at least.

“I couldn’t see everything he was doing but I know that he used a drill in some part of Jim’s mouth.”

“A drill?!”

Joanna nodded gravely. “Like the kind they have at a dentist’s office when you go to get a cavity filled. He put him to sleep and used the drill on him, I couldn’t see anything more than that though because he was constantly leaning over Jim’s face. When Jim woke up though, he started talking to him and Jim kept thrashing around.” 

“Towards the end Frank was getting angrier and angrier at the other guy.”

Pike’s head tilted to the side. “Did you happen to overhear why Frank was mad with the other man?” 

There was a beat and then Joanna was shaking her head. “He kept coming back in and mumbling about how he needed to leave soon and that ‘it shouldn’t be taking this long’, he seemed really anxious to leave. Then he stuck me and Jim in the trunk of the car and started driving.” 

“Did you get a chance to look at the car he put you in?” 

The whole room paused as Joanna took another drink of water. No one was willing to talk or move, they were to consumed in the thought of what might be happening to Jim. 

“It was a silver car, kind of like the one mama drives.” Leonard squinted as he tried to remember what type of car Jocelyn drives. It had been so long since he had seen her driving a car, he never really was around the few times that Jocelyn car to pick Joanna up after a visit had ended. 

“So it was a silver four door car, the size of a small suv.” He clarified. 

He was about to say something else but he was cut off before he could start by the high pitched chirping of Pike’s communicator. Pike held a hand up in silent apology, he stood up quickly and flipped open the communicator, saying a quick greeting as he walked out of the room. 

“So what happened once you were in the trunk of the car with Jim?” Spock urged, trying to bring Joanna’s focus back to the conversation, instead of leaving it focused on Pike’s exit. 

“Jim had me untie his hands cause mine were tied in front of me and then once he was free he untied his feet and my hands. He kicked out the tail light from the back of the car, he was going to try and get the attention of a driver behind us but Frank saw the tail light pop out of the back of the car and slammed on the brakes. When Frank came around and opened the trunk Jim kicked him in the stomach and we ran away.” 

Leonard pressed a kiss onto the top of Joanna’s head, he was only half listening to her story, he was focused on what she said had happened to Jim as well as being half greatful and half horrified that Jim had managed to get his daughter out of harm's way. Even if it meant that he couldn’t get himself out of harm's way. 

Spock nodded at her slowly as he absorbed the information. “So, Frank managed to catch up to him and subdue him before he was able to get away.”

“I don’t know. Jim told me to run as fast as I could and not look back no matter what happened.” Joanna sucked in a shaky breath and hugged her father. “I thought I heard a car engine before I heard a thud, but I didn’t look back.” 

“You did what was asked of you, Joanna. That was the logical thing to do.” 

Pike chose that moment to walk back in the room, his communicator still open in the palm of his hand and a pensive look on his face. He nodded at Spock and gestured for him to follow him out the door. 

He walked a bit further down the hall, until the door to Joanna’s room was almost out of sight. “We are going to need to leave soon.”

“Are we not going to wait until Dr. McCoy’s ex-wife gets here to watch over her?”

“We don’t have that kind of time, Spock. Joanna has given us all the information she can give us, she’s safe. Jim isn’t.”

Spock frowned. He saw the logic in leaving so that they would be able to continue trying to find Jim. Pike was right, the threat Joanna was small, almost infinitesimal now that Frank only had Jim but the threat to Jim had increased exponentially with the addition of an escape attempt and even more with the actual escape of Joanna. 

“What do you propose we do with Joanna. It is not logical to leave her here by herself or to take her with us as we are planning to go to an area when she was recently emotionally traumatized.” 

“We’ll have to leave McCoy here so that she has her father with her, he’ll have to catch up to us once Jocelyn gets here.” 

“You know as well as I do that Leonard will not be happy to be idle while Jim is in danger.”

“He doesn't have to be happy. We have to find Jim.” Pike answered back. He clipped his communicator back onto his belt and turned to start back down the hallway. 

Spock turned to follow him, quickly catching up and matching his steps. “May I inquire as to whom you were conversing with?”

“Sulu called to let me know that Hendorff had arrived to take McGareth into custody and he wanted to know if Hendorff should take him back to San Francisco or if he should keep him here till we find Jim.” Pike paused outside Joanna’s door. “I told him just to keep McGareth here, in case we need him for something else. I also don’t want Hendorff to far away in case we need him.” 

“I sent Sulu ahead to Dr. Andreas’ to check on Chekov and Scotty, since neither of them have contacted me about what they found when they arrived at Dr. Andreas’ office.”

Spock nodded at that answer and moved to let the door swish open for them, revealing the form of Joanna back on the bed with Uhura sitting next to her and letting her play around on her PADD. Leonard was off in one of the corners talking hushedly into a communicator, judging by the look on his face and the angry tone of his voice it seemed that he was most likely conversing with his ex-wife. 

“Leonard.”

Leonard’s head shot up and he quickly told Jocelyn that he needed to go and he would talk to her once she got there. “Jocelyn said she’ll be here in a little under two hours. Uhura said that she would stay with Joanna until Jocelyn gets here.” Leonard moved out of the corner and pressed a kiss to Joanna’s head before moving to stand next to Spock and Pike. “We need to head off to this Andreas guys place, see if we can’t get some answers out of him.” Leonard said darkly.

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1855 hours (6:55pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Jim POV); Scene takes place at the same time Leonard gets the call from the hospital._

 

Jim groaned as the car took yet another sharp turn and slammed him forward against the back of the front seat. He didn’t have to see to know that he had multiple small scratches and lacerations all along the right side of his body from being jammed back and forth against the metal holding the seat in place. And those injuries didn’t even include carpet burn along his chest and stomach from sliding around with no clothing on or the bruises that came with repeatedly getting slammed against stuff. 

His muscles had long since started cramping up horribly, thanks to the wonderful hogtie that he had been lovingly forced into.

The car felt like it was driving in literal circles and honestly for all he knew it might actually be driving in circles. He couldn’t see any of his surroundings thanks to the blanket over top of him, not that he would have been able to see anything anyway since the ropes that were restraining him were also holding his head tilted back at a painful angle. 

He still had no fucking idea where Frank was taking him or what he was planning to do to him once he got him wherever they were going. And to make it even worse, he could feel whatever Andreas did to him start to take effect. It was subtle, like he had told Frank it would be, but Jim found himself beginning to lull into a sense of safety. One minute he would be trying to think of another escape plan or a way for him to stall Frank, then all of a sudden he would realize that he had stopped thinking about it and instead had started to rest almost comfortably against the floor of the car. 

That, in and of itself, was probably one of the scariest if not _the_ scariest part of this whole ordeal. His whole life, no matter what trouble he got himself into, he had been able to rely on his mind to get him out, to come up with some kind of plan to get him back in one piece. But now Frank had found a way to turn his own mind against him. 

If Andreas’ was telling the truth, and honestly Jim was starting to believe that it was the truth a little more, then Jim really was going to be solely at Frank’s mercy. Unable to fight back or possibly even speak back. It was a horrifying thought, one that he was having more and more often as time went on. 

Another sharp turn jammed him back up against the back seat and he let out a muffled yelp as something slid out from under the seat and jammed up against his unprotected ribs.

“You doin’ okay back there, Jimmy?” Frank said with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there and after this we’ll finally be on our way home. I just have one last thing to show you before we go home.” 

Jim breathed heavily through his nose, trying to ignore Frank and focus on trying to wiggle away from whatever was jammed against his side. 

The car apparently heard his mental pleas and decided to answer them as another turn sent him careening forward towards the front seat, but it did however dislodge the object under him, even if it came at the cost of getting slammed into the front seat. 

“Here we are, Jimmy. I’ll be around to get you in a second.” Jim heard him get out of the car and vaguely he could hear the sound of footsteps rumbling around on gravel and dirt. 

He heard the door in front of him being yanked open shortly before the blanket over top of him was thrown back to reveal Frank. Jim shivered violently as the cold January air assaulted his bare skin, the fact that the sun had long since dipped below the horizon didn’t help his situation either. “Well, don’t you look awfully pretty like that. Maybe when we get home I’ll just constantly keep you all strung up. How does that sound, huh?” 

Jim, to his shock, for a few seconds actually contemplated the idea. Then he started berating himself. He knew that it was because of what Andreas did to him but at the same time he couldn’t help but scream at his mind that he should be stronger than this. He’s gotten out of worse situations, he managed to get Joanna out of this situation. Why couldn’t he fight off these drugs that Andreas had given him?

“I guess Jackson’s stuff actually is working, I guess it is nearly 1900 hours, you should be fully docile by 2000 hours.” Frank said curiously. “But until then, you and I have some other business to attend to.” 

Frank shoved the duffle bag off of his back and reached up to cut the rope that was holding his knees to his wrists followed quickly by cutting the rope that held his ankle to his gag. His legs slammed backwards into the car’s floor at the sudden release of tension and Jim almost moaned in relief as he was finally able to relax from the u-shape he had been bent into by the restraints. 

Frank cut the ropes that were securing his ankles and his knees together. He brushed his fingertips across Jim’s gagged mouth before pulling off the cloth gag that he had fastened over the ball gag. Jim shook his head, relieved at the cloth and straps being removed. 

Surprisingly enough, Frank stood up and shut the car door, he walked around and pulled the passenger side door open so that he was behind Jim. WIthout giving Jim the chance to kick back at him or try to scramble forward, he grabbed him by the back of the collar and quickly clipped a dog leash onto it. 

“Even if you do manage to get away from me and run, now you won’t get more than about five feet ahead of me.” Frank smirked. He yanked Jim up by the leash, wrapping the excess around the palm of his hand so that he was essentially forcing Jim to walk while his back was pressed firmly against Frank’s chest and his arms were kept trapped between the two of them. “Beside, I knew the blue would match your eyes and your collar and it is quite stunning.” 

Jim was forced to walk about 20 feet away from the car like that before Frank turned them both to face a big chain link fence with a sign that sent Jim’s heart racing.

“You remember this place don’t you, Jimmy?” Frank whispered in his ear. Jim didn’t need to see the man's face to know that he had a smug smirk plastered on his face. He was impressed with himself for making sure a horrible joke. “I thought it was fitting that I take you to the last place you rebelled against me before you were taken away. Especially since, thanks to Dr. Andreas’, you will never be able to rebel against me again.”

Jim tried desperately to keep his breathing steady as he was forced to look at the sign in front of him. 

‘ **RIVERSIDE QUARRY: PROCEED WITH CAUTION, HIGHLY HAZARDOUS.** ’

“You know, they shut this place down pretty soon after you drove your father’s car off the edge.” Frank said conversationally as he forced Jim to walk forward. “But they never did tear down the office building that went along with it. So we are going to hang out here for a bit until I’m sure that Andreas’ procedure has finished. I don’t want to show you your new home until you are all nice and ready to appreciate it.”

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1925 hours (7:15pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Leonard POV); Scene takes place slightly after previous scene._

Timelines are now coinciding at the same time. 

 

“Are we sure this is the right place?” Leonard asked as the pulled into the parking lot. The place didn’t look run down, per say but it didn’t look like a building that would house a medical facility of any kind. Even the old style of 21st century doctors office didn’t look this...old.

It looked almost like something you would see in an decrepit 21st century strip mall rather than a state of the art medical facility.

“I would believe so, Doctor. This is the address we were given, there is also the fact that the cars that Sulu, Scotty and Chekov used to drive to Dr. Andreas’ practice are parked in the parking lot. They would have alerted us had the address not panned out.” Spock stated as they got out of the car and started walking towards the entrance. “The car that belonged to Katie Bensler is also in the parking lot.”

Leonard glared at the back of Spock’s head as the Vulcan walked past him. “Yeah well Sulu, Chekov and Scotty have all failed to check in with any of us since they left McGareth’s and drove ahead to this place. For all we know this guy could have got the drop on them.” 

“There's no need to be so negative, Doctor. I don’t think I need to remind you but we truly don’t have anytime to bicker amongst ourselves at the moment.” 

Leonard let his mouth snap shut and instead turned his sights back towards the building. Spock pushed open the door and held it open so that the others could walk through. The three of them were silent as they traversed the short hallway. They all paused as they heard the sounds of a scuffle coming from a door down the hallway and to the left of them. They shared a glance then they sprinted towards the door, barely giving the door time to open before they were sliding through the door to see what was going on. 

The scene they came running into wasn’t exactly what they expected, but it was something similar. Sulu and Scotty had a man, who they assumed was Dr. Andreas, pinned against a chair ‘asking’ him questions. It wasn’t an interrogation. They were just very aggressively asking him questions. While Chekov had a phaser pointed at him from a little farther away. 

“What are the three of you doing?” Pike asked as he moved to shove both Scotty and Sulu back away from the doctor. 

“They were attacking me!” Andreas jumped at the chance to try and get the three of them in trouble, not knowing that the three of them were actually with Pike, Spock and Leonard. “They stormed in here out of nowhere and pulled me out of my med lab, they dragged me out here and started shouting at me and attacking me!” He said desperately. 

“We vere trying to get ‘im to tell us vhere Frank took zhe Keptin!” 

Andreas rapidly shook his head and glared at the young Russian. “That’s not true. I was minding my own business and they charged in here without any kind of warning.” 

Pike raised an eyebrow towards the three of them, causing them to quickly scurry over towards where Leonard and Spock were still standing near the door. “My apologies, sir. These men are StarFleet officers, I sent them here with the express orders to question you.” He said diplomatically. 

“And what might they need to question me about?”

“We were wondering if you have seen a man named James Kirk. He’s a captain with StarFleet, he was kidnapped.” 

Andreas’ eyes darted back and forth between Spock and Leonard, seemingly sizing them up before he decided what he was going to answer. “I haven’t seen him since he was a kid.” He said conversationally. “He was a cute kid. I thought he would have been a bit to rambunctious to fit in at a place like StarFleet.” 

Leonard’s brows furrowed and an angry frown settled over his face. He was about to step forward and give this guy a piece of his mind but before he could even take a step forward towards him, Spock had reached over and grabbed ahold of his arm so that he couldn’t go over there. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, the last time I saw him, he had a bad case of Meningitis that I had to take care of.” 

“That’s strange.” Pike said slowly as he walked closer to Andreas. “Because we have two people saying that Jim was here.” 

Andreas froze for a second, a look of panic was painted on his face for a second before it faded away. “Oh, well they must be mistaken. Like I said, I haven’t seen him in years.” 

Leonard stormed forward, pushing past Pike before he could say or do anything to stop him. “Listen here you bastard,” Leonard hissed as he leaned down into Andreas’ face, forcing the man to lean all the way back in his chair. “Frank kidnapped his own step son, a man who also happens to be my boyfriend. He also kidnapped my daughter. Now, she says that Frank brought her here and I sure as shit believe her.”

“A child isn’t-” 

“If that wasn’t proof enough for you to admit what you’ve done, then maybe the fact that Donald McGareth told us he brought Jim here might be proof enough. We didn’t just find you on our own you disgusting little leech.” Leonard grabbed the front of Andreas’ shirt and pulled him upwards until he was staring at him with their noses almost touching. “If you know anything and I mean _anything_ about Frank’s plans, then you better speak the fuck up before I decide to disregard my hippocratic oath and do you a hell of a lot of harm.” 

Andreas gulped audibly as he looked at the enraged face in front of him, then towards the faces of the men behind Leonard. When he saw the looks on their faces he quickly realized that they had no intentions of helping him or stopping Leonard. In fact Sulu and Scotty looked like they were more than willing to help Leonard if it actually came to physical blows. 

Andreas cleared his throat, he took one last look at the men behind Leonard before turning back to face Leonard. “Like I said before, I haven’t seen Ji-” 

There were several sharp intakes of breath as Leonard reeled his fist back and landed a swift, harsh punch to the side of Andreas’ jaw. Andreas’ head was knocked to the side and he brought a hand up to grip his jaw. 

“Let’s try this again.” Leonard started softly. “I know that Jim was here. There’s no disputing that, what I need from you is for you to tell me where Frank is taking him.” 

When Andreas’ remained silent, Leonard grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back. “Do you really want to do this? Just tell me where he is.” 

Leonard wound his arm back, preparing to deliver another punch when Andreas finally decided to speak up. “Wait!” He gasped out. “I don’t know where Frank was planning to take him. Neither did Don, at least neither of us knew where he was taking him after Don was supposed to bring him to me.” 

Andreas’ paused and Pike quickly gave him a motion for him to continue, while he stepped forward to pull Leonard back a few steps. “Like I said, We didn’t know where he was planning to take Jim. I s-swear!” Andreas whimpered at the pissed off look on Leonard’s face. “If it helps, I did ask him where he was taking jim, but he didn’t give me a straight answer.”

“What answer did he give you?” Spock asked.

“He said that he was going to take him to the last he rebelled against him. Something about how it would be ironic that the last place Jim rebelled was the reason he got taken away and that now it would be the last place he would ever be able to rebel.”

“So he’s going to kill zee Keptin?” Chekov said shakily as he grabbed onto Sulu’s shirt sleeve. The Helmsman simply grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Andreas gave the teenager an incredulous look. “What? No, he's not planning to kill him.” 

“You just stated that it would be the place of Jim’s last rebellion, how else could he ensure that Jim would not rebel against him again unless he was dead?” 

There was a split second of panic on Andreas’ face before he realized that he had already spilled the beans about being connected to Jim’s kidnapping and that the six men in the room seemed more interested in finding Jim and Frank than they were in him. “He was talking about what I did to Jim for him.”

Leonard took a menacing step forward. “What did you do to Jim?” 

“I - When he was first brought here I performed a procedure on him.” Andreas answered vaguely. 

“Yes we are aware of the fact that you did something to him, what we want to know is what you did to him.” 

“I, uh,” Andreas cleared his throat and looked away from the officers. “ I placed a chip filled with a chemical inside one of his teeth and then when the adhesive had set, I injected a secondary chemical into his gums.” 

Everyone except Andreas turned to look at Leonard, trying to gauge his reaction to the information and see whether it was bad or good. “What did you plan would happen?” 

“The chemicals were supposed to mix, which they did, and be absorbed into his bloodstream, which they were, then once they entered his bloodstream they would make their way to his brain. At which point those two combined chemicals would begin to react with the natural brain chemicals and essentially alter his natural biochemistry.” Andreas said quietly, trying to ignore the angry looks. 

No one but Spock, Leonard and Andreas truly understood the full meaning of what altering Jim’s biochemistry would entail, but they knew it wasn’t anything that good possibly be good. 

“What effects were you hoping to achieve with these particular chemicals?” Spock asked seriously. 

“Frank wanted me to find a way to make it so that Frank wouldn’t have to worry about him trying to escape anymore. He wanted him to be docile and affectionate. He wanted me to find a way to remove the very need to rebel and fight and just be generally troublesome.” Andreas answered honestly, there wasn’t any reason to lie to them at this point. “It took me a little bit to find the right combination of chemicals so that I knew it wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction to Jim and it took even longer for all the testing I had to do to make sure it would react to his brain right but I finally did find the right combination.” 

“How long will he have before these effects take place?” 

“I can’t be completely sure, everyone's body reacts slightly different to any kind of stimuli and honestly Jim’s body started reacting slower than most but eventually the chemicals did start to absorb into his bloodstream. I told Frank that it would be somewhere between four to five hours but it could be a little slower or a little faster.” Andreas stood up, his hand gesturing wildly as he started talking about his little pet program. 

“There’s...one other thing” He started hesitantly. 

“What’s that?”

Andreas sighed and shook his head a little. “I tried to tell Frank but he left before I was able to..” He trailed off slightly as he thought back to what he had been trying to tell Frank. 

Leonard stepped forward and snapped his fingers in front of Andreas’ face, startling the man slightly. “Stay focused, you asshole. What were you trying to tell Frank before he left?” 

“It’s about the effects of the chemicals.”

“You said that they were combining and absorbing the way they were supposed to.”

“They were. That wasn’t the problem, it was with the effects that happened after the chemicals started altering his chemistry. They would still have the desired effects, the docility and the affection without the rebelliousness. The problem comes with how you get those traits or more accurately what comes with those traits.” 

Spock gave him a questioning look. “What comes with the effects?” 

“It’ll cause him to become...childlike, is the most accurate way to describe it.” He hesitated slightly before continuing on. “Granted I don’t think Frank will _mind_ , per say, that he is childlike but I don’t think that was truly what he wanted me to do.” 

Pike had turned away from the group slightly and was scrubbing his hand up and down his face, trying to take in the information he had just received, “When you say childlike, what _exactly_ do you mean?” 

Andreas sighed, trying to figure out a way to explain exactly what he meant in a way that everyone would understand. “He would be affectionate like Frank wanted him, but he would also crave affection in return. He would be docile because, like a child, he would want to rely on someone else as the final authority, the same way a child would rely on a parent to say they are right or wrong. He would be extremely trusting and he most likely wouldn’t understand any form of cruelty. He would also be extremely malleable, like a child.” 

“So what you're saying is you’ve handed a man who’s been tortured and abused since he was a child back to the man who abused him and made it so he can’t fight back, made it so that he has to depend on his abuser and made it so that his abuser can shape his worldview.” Leonard growled out. “You’ve made it so that he can convince Jim that his abuse is justified and even in the event that someone finds out he's being abused it won’t matter because Jim will be a child in an adult body and Frank can easily have him convince anyone who comes a callin’ that he isn’t actually being hurt.”

Andreas gave him a desperate look of barely concealed horror. “That - You have to understand, that wasn’t my intention.” 

“You’ve literally given Frank the perfect victim!” 

“I wasn’t in it to abuse a child!” Andreas yelled despairingly. He released a huff of air and wrung his hands in front of him. “I was doing it for science. I - I’m a man of science!”

“How does this folly have anything to do with science? Science is used for study and for creating ways to further advance society and to help people.” Spock asked harshly. “All you’ve done is grievously harm and alter someone, someone who had no choice in the matter, then ship them off so that they may be harmed even more grievously.” 

“How does it not have anything to do with science?” He shot back in a desperate voice. “Think of what we could do with this, we could take criminals, horrible people, and mentally set them back to childhood. We could essentially retrain them to be progressive members of society! Anytime someone has horrific views of the world, we can change them!”

Spock wasn’t willing to dignify Andreas’ reasons with an answer. Leonard, however, had no such problem. “You’re an idiot.” He hissed. “If you were truly a man of science or a man of medicine you wouldn’t have done it like this. You would have gone through the proper channels, done experiments in a sanctioned lab and reported all of your findings, but you didn’t do that.” 

“You said yourself that you only started trying to find the right combinations of chemicals because _Frank_ wanted you to make it so that he could use it for Jim.” Pike cut in as he turned around. “You’re nothing but a liar who’s trying desperately to save his own skin.”

Pike faced Scotty and gestured for him to take out his communicator. “We’ve gotten all the information we need from him, call Hendorff and have him bring McGareth here, we’ll keep them both together until we are ready to go back to San Francisco. Right now we need to get to Jim.” 

“Admiral, we are no closer to knowing where Frank is taking Jim, should we not search the premises to see if maybe Frank left something behind?” Spock asked. 

Pike shook his head and shot a glare down to Andreas. “He may not know it but he did give us the location of where Frank is heading.” When everyone looked at him in confusion he clarified his statement. “Frank apparently said that he was taking Jim to ‘the last place Jim rebelled against him, a place that was also the reason Jim got taken away from Frank’.” 

“You believe that you know where this ‘last place of rebellion’ is?” 

“It’s at the Riverside Quarry.” 

Everyone was staring at Pike, they weren’t sure what the Riverside Quarry was or why Pike thought that was where they were but there was absolute confidence in his voice and that was enough for them to believe him. “It has to be there.”

“Why? That place has been shut down for a long time.” Andreas said, confused. 

“It was shut down shortly after a young boy drove a car off the cliff. He barely managed to jump out of the car before it went over.”

“What does that have to do with Jim?” Sulu asked.

“Jim was the boy driving the car.” Pike said grimly. “It was his father’s car, Frank was going to sell it and Jim took it and drove it off the cliff, when Frank called the police about it the police got StarFleet involved since it was a call about George Kirk’s son. I ended up there as an investigator because I was a friend of George’s and I realized what was going on between Frank and Jim, though I didn’t realize that the abuse was sexual. I had Jim removed from Frank’s home and he was sent to live with his aunt.” 

“So it was the last act of rebellion that Jim ever made against Frank and it was the reason he got taken away from Frank.” Spock clarified.

Pike nodded. “And we need to get there fast, because we are coming up on that four to five hour time limit. We’ll still need time to figure out how to counteract whatever this idiot did to him.”

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1910 hours (7:10pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Jim POV); Scene takes place slightly before previous scene._

 

Jim tried not to groan out loud as his bare feet slipped on yet another cold, rusted step. Frank still had the leash wrapped tight around his hand, he had left just enough of it free that Jim was able to step down one step ahead of him without worrying about choking himself to death. But taking away the worry of asphyxiation doesn’t take away the worry of falling and snapping his neck or getting tetanus from the rust that was stinging the scratches on his feet. At this point Bones would have already been screaming about infections and diseases and how reckless Jim was being

Jim would give anything to have Bones here yelling at him right now. Hell, he would be willing to receive every single hypo that wasn’t lethal to him, right now if it meant that he would have Bones there giving it to him. But instead all he had for company was Frank, who finally for once in the whole time Jim knew him, had stopped talking for more than five seconds and was at least letting Jim walk into hell in silence. 

He had to forcefully bite back a growl when they got to the bottom of the steps and Frank shoved him forwards off the last step, only to yank back sharply on the leash and made him stumble back into his chest. 

He was shoved down the hallway and into a dimly lit room. It must have been used either as a meeting room of as a planning room back when the quarry had actually been up and running because the room was lined with bulletin boards and white boards and it had a long steel table in the middle of the room. There weren’t any chairs anywhere in the room but Frank pushed him to the far end of the table. 

Once Jim had stumbled over to the end of the table, Frank bent him over the edge of it and fastened the end of the leash to a piece of metal sticking up in the middle of the table. When he was done Frank leaned back, but the leash made it so that Jim could rise up from his bent over position.

Frank ran his hands up and down Jim’s sides, he leaned back a little further so that he could admire the view of Jim’s pert bottom. Of course when he was done with admiring, he helped himself to more than a few quick gropes of the firm, round flesh that was in front of him. Jim let out a muffled growl which only ended in him getting a few hard smacks to his sensitive ass. 

“Now for once I actually want to hear your bratty little voice, so I’m gonna take the gag out of your mouth.” Frank crooned mockingly. “You can feel free to scream all you want, since no one is around here to hear you it won’t matter if you do or not.” 

Despite his words, Frank took his time undoing the gag. He traced his fingertips all along where that ball was forcing Jim’s mouth open then he trailed his finger up where the straps were cutting into his cheeks and leaving angry red streaks. He ended his journey where the buckle was pressed against the back of his head. 

Finally he unclasped that buckle in the back and let the gag slide out of his mouth. 

“There we go. I bet you feel better now.” 

Jim used to newly freed mouth to take in a deep steady breath in. 

Frank rubbed the sore red lines on his cheeks, gently tapping them until Jim turned his head as much as the collar would allow him to and glared at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you off the leash soon. I just need to secure you down to the table and then I’ll take the leash off.” 

Frank patted Jim’s side before turning around and throwing the duffle bag on the table. He pulled out two lengths of rope and laid it on the table next to Jim. He wrapped the first length of rope around Jim’s wrist, just above where the other set of rope ended, then he tied the end of that rope to the metal piece in the middle of the table where the leash was tied to. 

He quickly followed that by taking the second piece of rope and tying it to the leg of the chair where it met the top of the supports for the top of the table, he also tied a slipknot at the other end of the rope. He cut the tape that held Jim’s hands together, slitting the ropes that held his wrists and elbows together as well. He didn’t give Jim the chance to do anything with his suddenly free arms, instead he quickly shoved Jim’s left wrist through the slipknot and pulled it taught. 

With how he had tied the slipknot and the knot under the table it made it so that Jim only had about an inch or two of leeway before he couldn’t move it any farther. The other rope that had been tied around his other wrist made it so that he couldn’t really move that one either. Jim huffed in irritation as Frank went ahead and tied both of his ankles to the table legs, though he made those slightly looser so he could move his legs back and forth a little bit before the rope started tugging him back. 

“There we go.” Frank said. He leaned over Jim and undid the leash, moving back so that he could stand up. 

The ropes around his arms let his stand up to his full height, but they were too short for him to lean back and try to get enough leverage to break them or try to flip the table over, not that he would have succeeded considering the fact that it was a fully metal table. 

He turned his head and shot an angry glare over his shoulder at Frank. 

Frank just stared back at him with a satisfied smirk on his face, he didn’t seem at all fazed to have the full force of Jim’s ire on him. Suddenly, Frank was pressed up against his back again, his chin nuzzling against the side of Jim’s neck. “You know, Jimmy, I’ve missed you. From the second Admiral Locke called me in that penal colony all I’ve thought about was you.” 

Jim tried to flinch forward away from Frank as he rubbed his hands across the soft, silky skin of his stomach but Frank grabbed him by the back of the collar and pulled sharply. That forced Jim’s whole body to press back against Frank’s from hip to shoulder, all the while making his wrists strain against the ropes. 

“Don’t try to pull away from me, Jimmy” He growled softly into the back of Jim’s neck. “You know how much I hate that.” 

Frank grabbed him by the neck and slammed him down onto the table. He heard Jim let out a soft gasp as he connected with the table. “Oh? What’s wrong, Jimmy? You thinking back to all the other times I did this to you? All the other times I’ve bent you over like this?” Frank’s hot breath was curling around the shell of Jim’s ear, ghosting silently over his cheek and fogging up the metal below his face. “It’s alright if you are. Most people would have flashbacks at a moment like this, you know, PTSD and everything.”

"You know you'll never get away with this." Jim said breathlessly when he felt Frank start to grind himself against the curve of Jim’s ass. 

Frank chuckled as he shifted around behind Jim, his hands coming up to wrap around and caress his chest. "What was that? Oh, you mean that your friends, your crew, and whoever else they may have convinced to join the search will find us? I’m not sure how many friends you actually have." Jim could feel his smirk against the back of his neck, "It doesn't matter. Whether your friends catch me and I go back to a penal colony or I try to run and they kill me, it won't matter. You want to know why, Jimmy?" 

Jim bit his lip and sucked in a sharp breath, steadying himself against whatever Frank was about to say. "Why?" He asked shakily, the confidence in his stepfather's voice making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

"Because, Jimmy, you'll still be alive. You will still be out there. I've read about it, baby. The things I do, the things I've done to you...those things aren't something anyone forgets." Franks voice was a low satisfied purr against his back. "You can try as hard as you want, you can lock the memories in the deepest part of your mind. But it won't matter, because years later after you think you've finally forgotten it'll come back to haunt you."

"Someone will say something. Or touch you a certain way and you won't think anything of it at the time but you'll wake up in a cold sweat, shaking and feeling like all the oxygen has been sucked out of the air." Frank whispered as he pressed himself in a hard line against Jim's back, once again grinding his hard cock into the smooth curve of Jim's ass. "And the best part is...no matter how hard you've worked to forget me the first thing your mind is going to do is make you look for me. You'll glance out into the dark of your room and wonder if I'm coming for you again. If I’ve somehow managed to do what I’ve done again. You’ll wonder if this time I’ll break you."

“You’ll be out galavanting around the galaxy or something as mundane as getting food and all of a sudden you’ll hear a noise and you’ll wonder if it’s me, behind you, about to put a phaser to the back of your head.”

"You're wrong." Jim gasped out desperately, his legs trembling, his threat convulsed around the breaths he was desperately trying to suck in. But no matter how hard he tried to make himself seem strong, those words were bouncing around in his head, and he knew that Frank knew they were rumbling about in his mind. “As soon as I get away from you, I’ll never have to deal with you again. You’ll never be able to come near me again, you sick bastard.” He hissed. 

"I could be dead and six feet under or incarcerated a thousand light years away but you won't be able to escape me. That's how I live on, in you. And we both know you'll never be able to forget, not with that eidetic memory of yours. I’ll be with you forever, slowly but surely ruining you, the same way I already have." Frank finished with a dark, menacing chuckle.

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa 1935 hours (7:35pm), Third Night of Shoreleave (Leonard POV); Scene takes place during the previous scene._

 

“You’re sure this is the way to the quarry, Admiral?” 

Pike nodded as he kept his eyes glued on his PADD. “Yes, Spock, I’m sure this is the way. I know it may have been over ten year since I’ve been out to this place, but there's certain things you never forget.”

Spock gave a slight nod and turned all of his focus back on the road. They had only been driving down the road for a few minutes. Leonard, Sulu and Chekov were squeezed into the back of the car while Pike was in the passenger's seat and Spock was once again driving. 

Pike had decided to go ahead and leave Scotty with Andreas since they had Hendorff and his security team on his way to the doctor's office with McGareth. It hadn’t been any easy decision to leave him there, they knew they needed someone to stay with Andreas but Pike hadn’t really wanted the Scottish man to stay with him. 

Scotty had been somewhat of a loose cannon around Andreas, he hadn’t been Pike’s first choice, if fact Chekov had been his first choice but he didn’t want to have to worry about Andreas overpowering Chekov before the head of security got there. 

Uhura had commed them to let them know that Jocelyn would be at the hospital to be with Joanna soon and that Leonard’s mother had also come along with Jocelyn to help with Joanna. She said she would commandeer a car once Jocelyn got there and meet up with them at the Quarry. 

“Take a left up here, Spock.” Pike pointed towards a street sign that was almost obscured by the trees that had grown around the pole. They turned down onto an old dirt and gravel road the was shrouded by trees on both sides. 

“Do ve know ‘ow much time zhe Keptain has left before zhe chemicals start to alter his brain chemistry?” Chekov asked quietly as the car rumbled down the road. 

Spock kept his eyes focused on the road but his head turned slightly to look at Chekov in the back passenger’s seat. “If our timeline is correct then the chemicals were mixed and beginning to absorb into his bloodstream at approximately 1600 hours this afternoon. As it is now 1935 hours and Dr. Andreas stated that it should take between 4 and five hours, it would seem that we have anywhere from 25 to an hour and 25 minutes before the alteration is finished. That, however is not taking into account the fact that Andreas did not have an accurate timeframe for the effects.”

“Which is Vulcan talk for ‘We have no fucking idea as to when it’s going to finish being altered.’, for all we know he could have had a delayed allergic reaction. We all know Frank wouldn’t have taken him to the hospital even if he did.” Leonard argued.

Pike frowned and looked at Leonard in the rearview mirror. “Leonard, we don’t need you to be so negative right now. We need to focus on getting to the Quarry. If we are lucky, Frank hasn’t left yet and we can corner him in the quarry.” 

Leonard clamped his mouth shut and turned to face the window. All Leonard could think about was Jim. What he was going through, what the drugs that Jim was given could be doing to him.

He was afraid. He knew that. He had no problem admitting to that fact. But ever since they had found out what exactly Andreas had done to Jim, he couldn’t get his mind off of what the worst case scenario would be. 

The worst case used to be that they would never find Jim and that Frank would disappear into the universe with one of the only people Leonard had left. Or that they would find Jim dead somewhere, after an escape attempt gone wrong or after Frank finally got tired of him. All those scenarios had been playing in his head since he had first learned that Jim had been abducted. 

But not one, since this whole ordeal had started, had Leonard even contemplated that he might get Jim back but not have it be the same Jim that had been taken from him. He knew he would be traumatized, that he might need therapy or space or time alone to regroup and build himself back up. He didn’t know if he would be able to help Jim back from this if what Andreas planned to happen actually came to fruition. 

He would try, oh he would spend the rest of his life trying no matter how small the chance of success was, but even if he tried he may never be able to get his Jim back. It was almost like the whole Delvia situation all over again, where he wasn’t sure if he would ever get his Jim back, where he was constantly worried about whether he would be stuck with a child version of Jim.

Leonard was jolted out of his thoughts violently by the shrill sound of his comm unit ringing from where it was clipped onto his belt. 

“McCoy.” He answered gruffly when he saw that he was being called by a number he didn’t know. 

“Bones?”

* * *

_Riverside, Iowa; 1945 (7:45pm): Third night of Shoreleave (Jim’s POV); Begins place at the same time as last scene._

 

“Now, Jimmy. You and I are going to play a little game.” Frank chuckled as he roughly patted Jim on the cheek. He removed himself from Jim’s back and walked around in front of him. 

He pulled the duffle bag off the table and pulled two things out of it, he kept it out of Jim’s view so that he couldn’t see what it was. 

Jim, however, wasn’t all that worried about what Frank was pulling out of the bag. Instead he was more concerned with the fact that he had been having more and more lulls in his personality. At first when Frank had pressed against his back he had felt disgusted and angry, he had wanted to break out of those ropes around his wrists and beat the shit out of the man who had caused him so much pain, who was still currently causing him even more pain. But then after about ten minutes he had realized that there were times when he didn’t feel that way. When he felt comforted by the feel of someone pressed up against his back, the feel of warmth and weight making him feel safe and...wanted. 

That scared him more than anything Frank has done to him. He knew it was coming, he knew it from the moment Andreas had told him what he had done and he had thought he had prepared himself well enough for that inevitability when he had been helping Joanna escape. Apparently, he had been completely wrong. 

It was horrible. The feeling of one minute being sure in who he was and how he was going to react to certain things, then all of a sudden it was like being jolted awake from a wonderful dream, as he realized that he had lulled off. He couldn’t even tell it was happening. Not until the moment that it stopped and he started reacting like his normal self and by then it was too late because Frank had already noticed that he was complacent. Even if he hadn’t done it for more than a few seconds, Frank always seemed to notice. 

“I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Jack’s little experiment is beginning to work.” Frank said with a smirk. “So, since we are waiting here until it is finished, I thought it would be appropriate to play a little game.” 

“Especially since it’ll be that last thing you do before you’ll agree to anything I suggest.” 

Jim shuddered at the sinister tone in Frank’s voice. “What kind of game are you talking about?” 

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing too bad.” Frank replied calmly as he revealed the two things he had taken out of the duffle bag. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Russian Roulette before.” 

At that Frank placed a small old style six chamber revolver, the kind of gun that Jim had only ever seen in a museum of 21st century weapons. He clicked open the cylinder and after showing Jim that the chambers were all empty, he loaded a single bullet into the top chamber. He had a devious smirk on his face as he rapidly spun the cylinder and without looking at the chambers or letting Jim see, he slammed the cylinder back into place on the gun and cocked back the hammer. 

He set the revolver on the table with a clink that seemed to resonate in Jim’s head like a gunshot. Frank made his way around the table back over to Jim and quickly pulled out a small utility knife so that he could use it to cut the rope that held Jim’s right wrist down. 

He leisurely strolled back over to his side of the table and grabbed the revolver off the table. “Now, I’m sure that you know the rules of russian roulette but just in case you don’t, I’ll go ahead and tell them to you. Obviously it starts with a six chamber revolver and one single bullet. Then someone loads one of the chambers with the bullet and spin the cylinder to randomize where the bullet ends up, so that neither of the players knows which chamber the bullet is in.” 

Frank aimed the barrel straight at Jim’s face as he continued talking. “Once that’s done the two players take turns holding the gun to their head and pulling the trigger. Whichever one is unlucky enough to get the chamber with the bullet in it, well it’s pretty obviously that the person who shoots the bullet dies.” 

“You want us to take turns trying to shoot ourselves in the head?” Jim asked incredulously. 

“That is the point of the game, Jimmy.” Frank said snobbishly as he playfully swung the gun around. “Since I’m a gentleman and a generous person all around, I’ll go first.” He held the gun slightly away from his left temple and cocked the hammer back until it clicked to signal that it was primed to fire. Frank stared Jim down with a smirk and pulled the trigger. There was a loud click and Jim felt his breath leave him in an almost painful sigh. 

“I just want to remind you, Jimmy, that should you for some reason decide to take the chance of the bullet being in the chamber and try to aim at me to kill me, that I have a fully loaded phazer that I have no qualms about firing at you and you only have a one in five chance of actually having a bullet to hit me with.” With that being said Frank slid the gun across the table to where it hit Jim’s untied wrist. 

Jim stared at him in shock. He had known that Frank was a crazy son of a bitch but this was a completely new level of insanity even for him. He was so stunned that his mind didn’t even seem to really register the fact that the smooth, cool metal of the gun was pressed against his hand. He couldn’t force himself to do anything but gape at Frank.

Frank only let him stand there stupidly for a few seconds before he seemed to start getting impatient. “Jimmy.” He crooned. “Pick up the gun and play the game with me.” 

Jim felt himself begin to shake as he looked down at his hand and saw that it had started to inch towards the gun. It felt like he was having an out of body experience, like he was watching someone else’s hand reach for a loaded gun, but he knew it wasn’t someone else. He knew that was his hand gripping the shiny metal of the handle and lifting it up to his head and he couldn’t help but shiver as the barrel pressed against his temple. 

_Click_

Jim let out a gasp and quickly released the gun, his legs feeling like jelly beneath him. 

Frank leaned forward and slowly slid the gun back towards himself. “See, Jimmy? That wasn’t so bad was it? You didn’t even get hurt.” 

Frank cocked the hammer back quickly, held the gun up to his temple and pulled the trigger. Jim flinched back as the click resounded loudly in the open room. He felt a whimper building up in his throat but he just barely was able to keep it from rising out and into the air. He could feel himself slipping, concern for Frank’s safety was buzzing around in his head, urging him to just give in and let Frank have his way so that this would stop. 

The gun was slid over to him and he felt a spark of fear run down his spine as he looked at the lifeless metal gleaming up at him. “Take the gun.” 

“I don’t want to.” Jim distantly heard his own voice saying, but it didn’t truly sound like his voice. “I don’t wanna play anymore.” He could feel his breath catching in his throat as he glanced up desperately at Frank. That hadn’t been what he wanted to say. 

“It’s alright, Jimmy. It’s a game. You like games.” Frank cooed as he pushed the gun a little bit closer to Jim’s hand. “Take the gun and put it to your head.” 

His hand was trembling violently as it picked up the gun, so much so that he couldn’t really keep the gun steady against his temple. 

“Pull the trigger, baby.” 

The sob he released somehow echoed louder than the click of the gun did. The gun fell slipped out of his hand and clattered to the floor. He whimpered and shook where he stood, he didn’t want to play anymore.

“It’s okay, baby. This’ll all be over soon.” Frank whispered to him as he reached over to stroke Jim’s cheek soothingly. Jim leaned forward into the caress, unable to resist the urge to be comforted. He could hear something whispering in the back of his mind that he shouldn’t be leaning to Frank for comfort, that he should be trying to get away from Frank, but he was scared. He was suddenly willing to ignore the voice in the back of his head if it meant that he would be comforted. 

“Now, there’s one last thing we need to do before we can end our game and go home.” The hand that was caressing his cheek moved down to cup his jaw. Jim focused his gaze on Frank’s face, now that Frank had said it, Jim’s mind had suddenly latched onto the idea of going home. “You remember your friend, right? You called him Bones?” 

Jim nodded and waited for Frank to continue. 

“I want you to call him and talk to him. Then when that’s done we’ll finish our game and we’ll head home. Okay?” Frank pulled out his personal comm unit and quickly typed in what he was pretty sure was Leonard McCoy’s comm code. He had only briefly glanced through Jim’s comm after he had entered Jim’s room but he was pretty sure he had seen the right number. He handed Jim the comm and threaded his hand through Jim’s hair. 

He waited as Jim listened to the comm, his one hand gently petting Jim’s hair while the other rested on his hip. 

“ _McCoy._ ” A gruff voice answered the phone sharply. Frank could hear more than two other people taking in the background but it was quiet enough that he couldn’t make out what they were saying. 

“Bones?” Jim called out questionly. 

There was a keen intake of breath and suddenly all of the voices in the background fell silent at the same time. “ _Jim?_ ” McCoy asked shakily. “ _Jim, is that you._ ” 

“Hi, Bones.” Jim sounded surprisingly cheerful, given the fact that just a minute ago he had looked like he was about to cry from fear, but Frank supposed that was probably part of whatever Andreas had done to make him docile and sweet. Which so far in the last few minutes he had been just that. “Frank wanted me to call you, he said that when I’m done calling you we can finish our game and then go home.” 

Frank frowned slightly as he heard the childlike quality Jim’s voice had suddenly taken on. It was extremely strange to hear that soft but enthusiastic and curious voice coming out of Jim’s mouth, even when he had actually been a child he hadn’t sounded that childlike. 

“ _Jim, where are you and Frank?_ ” McCoy’s voice was extremely cautious, like he was talking to a small child that he didn’t want to startle. 

Frank saw Jim’s mouth open to start talking and he lunged forward to grab the comm out of Jim’s hand but it was already too late. “We’re at the quarry!” Jim answered and he gave Frank a confused and hurt stare when he surged forward, causing the rope around Jim’s wrist to strain and chafe against his skin. “What? You told me to talk to him.” 

“Give me the comm, Jimmy.” He hissed. Without giving Jim the chance to either obey or disobey him, he quickly grabbed the comm out of his hand and threw it down onto the floor, crushing it violently with his heel. 

Jim’s bottom lip trembled and tears started to build up in his eyes. “Why are you angry? I called him like you wanted.” 

Frank scrambled around the room, shoving both the gun and the phazer back into the duffle bag before he turned around and started hacking away at the ropes that were restraining Jim to the table. He dropped down to his knees and did the same with the ropes that were tying his feet to the legs of the table. When he had stripped all of the pieces of rope from Jim, he grabbed Jim by the arm and yanked him away from it, pulling him over to the door and down the hallway. 

“Where are we going? I thought you said we had to finish playing your game before we could go home.” 

Frank barely even paused in yanking Jim up the stairs. “There’s been a change of plans, Jimmy.” 

“Why? Are we still going home?” Jim’s voice was full of fear and he kept stumbling up the steps as Frank forced him to take the steps faster than his tired body could handle. 

“If you would just shut up, I could get us home but right now all you are doing is irritating me!”

* * *

Everything that was happening in the car around Leonard suddenly ground to a halt as everyone heard Jim’s voice come over the comm. It took Leonard a few seconds to actually register the fact that Jim was talking to him. 

“Jim.” He asked shakily, his voice wavering as he listened to the sound of Jim breathing over the comm. “Jim, is that you?”

“ _Hi, Bones!_ ” Leonard frowned as he heard a strange candance in Jim’s voice. Another few seconds went by before his mind registered the reason behind the weird inflection. Andreas’ chemicals must have finally started to alter the chemistry in Jim’s brain. The strange inflection was a sign of Jim’s brain regressing his personality back to childlike quality. “ _Frank wanted me to call you, he said that when I’m done calling you we can finish our game and then go home._ ” 

Leonard tried to think about what kind of game Frank was making Jim play but he had to quickly divert his mind off of that topic so that he wouldn’t start going ballistic. The last thing he needed to do was go off the deep end when he was talking to Jim like this. He didn’t know how Jim would react to negative stimuli, especially not when he wasn’t in the room with him and couldn’t actively see the body language and subconscious signs that he would be putting off. 

He took in a deep breath and thought hard about what he would say next. There was a chance that he could use Jim’s childlike state to get information out of him, after all children were usually naive and answered questions without even thinking of what they were saying. 

“Jim, where are you and Frank?” He asked cautiously, hoping beyond hope that Frank wasn’t close enough to take the comm away or that Jim actually knew where he was and wasn’t just being kept in a hole in the wall somewhere and they lose the chance to find him. 

There was a short pause and then Jim’s cheerful voice came back over the comm. “ _We’re at the quarry!_ ” He said, a happy tone prevalent in his voice. There was the soft song of a scuffle that filtered over the comm channel and Leonard held his breath as he heard the sound of metal scraping against a floor. “ _What? You told me to talk to him._ ” He heard Jim said in a confused voice. 

He heard Frank hiss at Jim to give him the comm and he thought he might have heard Jim ask Frank something in a confused voice but before he could ask anything else, the call was ended by a loud _crunch_. 

There was a few moments of a tense total silence in the car, then the silence was broken by the wailing sound of the police cars sirens being flicked on by Spock followed shortly by the revving of the engine as the Vulcan stepped on the gas. 

“Take another left up at this next fork in the road and then follow the road down for about a mile, that should take up to the main office building for the quarry.” Pike barked at Spock as he took a hold of the side door panel to steady himself as the car slid a little bit on the gravel. 

The Vulcan was very clearly ignoring any and all traffic laws as he took a hairpin turn to the left and pushed the small cop car as fast as it could go. The building was up ahead of them and they could see lights on in the front office despite the place very clearly having been abandoned. Andreas’ car was sitting parked in front of the door to the building with the trunk still open. 

Pike, Leonard and Sulu all threw their doors open, barely giving Spock time to fully stop the car and put it in park before they were hitting the ground and running towards the front door. 

“Chekov, Spock go around back and make sure he can’t escape that way.” Pike yelled back at them as they scrambled to get out of the parked car. Spock gave an affirmative noise, taking off around the building with his phaser already drawn and set to stun.

They all ran through the door, phasers drawn and set to stun just in case they encountered Jim before they encountered Frank or in case Frank was using Jim like a human shield. There was a set of stairs leading upstairs to the second floor of the building as well as a set leading downstairs.

“Sulu, you take the upstairs, McCoy and I will head downstairs.” Pike whispered just in case Frank was around them and they just couldn’t see him. 

Pike and Leonard took a minute to search the few offices that were located right at the entrance to the front door but once they had cleared those out they started to head down the stair, Pike taking the lead with McCoy following cautiously behind him with an eye watching the stairs they were coming from just in case Frank got the drop on Sulu and came down after them. 

Their footsteps made barely any sound on the rusted, metal stairs and they continued to creep down the steps, waiting with baited breath for the second they saw some form of life. 

Leonard froze in place as he saw Pike throw his hand up to signal for him to stop advancing. He held his breath and focused his mind on trying to listen for any kind of sounds. 

There. 

A little ways down the hall was the sound of a soft voice talking to someone. Or more accurately he heard one voice talking to someone while another voice whisper yelled at him to shut the fuck up. Pike pointed his phaser directly at the door the sounds were coming from, standing completely still to wait for when whoever it was came out of the door. 

“ _I know you wanna go home, you little brat. We would have already been there if you hadn’t fucking told your friends where we were and made me forget my fucking keys on the table._ ” Frank’s voice hissed through the door. Jim’s voice said something back to him but it was completely indistinguishable through the thick door. 

Pike brought his comm unit up to his face and quickly whispered into it. “Spock, Sulu, Frank and Jim are in a room in front of us. If you take the stairs leading down from the front office you’ll find us.” 

He got three replies confirming his instructions right as a loud yelp rung out in the room in front of them. Pike and Leonard shared a quick look and then threw the door in front of them open, both aiming their phasers at where they assume Frank would be. 

The door slammed against the wall behind it, causing Jim to yell out at the sound. Jim was crumpled on the floor at Frank’s feet, his hand cupping his left cheek which was a bright red, having clearly just been slapped. 

He was curled in on himself and they could clearly hear soft whimpers coming from him. Pike kept his phaser trained on Frank while Leonard quickly lowered his and holstered it back on his hip. He knelt down where he stood, making sure that he had a clear line of sight to Jim, one that wasn’t obscured by Frank or his legs. 

“Jim? You remember me, right?” He asked softly, trying to keep his voice low and soothing. He had to remind himself that he was working with what was essentially a child and not his boyfriend. 

Jim sniffled and uncurled himself slightly. “Bones.” He said with a slow nod. 

“Yeah, that’s me, we were just talking on the phone a few minutes ago.” Jim nodded again and Leonard gave him a relieved smile. “That bruise on your face looks like it hurts.” 

Jim mewled softly. “It hurts, Bones.” 

“Why don’t you come with me and we’ll get that all healed up.” 

Jim looked back and forth between Leonard and Frank. 

“Jim, Frank is the one who hurt you. You don’t want it to happen again, do you? You need to come with me so I can help you.” Leonard hummed, trying to convince Jim that he was obviously the better choice to go to. “Just come to me and we’ll get you all fixed up.” 

Frank growled and took a menacing step towards Leonard only to be stopped as he was faced with Pike’s phaser being turned to kill and the sound of thundering footsteps making their way down the hallway. 

Jim took another glance between Frank and Leonard, clearly weighing the look of Frank’s scowl against the smile on Leonard’s face. Jim started crawling over to Leonard, who took a hold of his hand and helped him stand up. 

Once he had him standing he quickly shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around Jim’s shoulders. Jim was looking at him with a look of childish awe on his face. “C’mon, Jim, why don’t we get out of here and get you somewhere to get looked at and get some better fitting clothes for you.” Leonard said as he started leading Jim towards the door. Spock, Sulu and Chekov quickly stepped out of their way so that they could get out into the hallway. 

“But I like your jacket, Bones.” He whispered softly. “It smells nice.” 

It wasn’t until Jim was in the hallway and about to take a step up the stairs that he stumbled and let out a soft pained noise that any of them realized his feet were bloody and shredded to pieces, from the gravel on the road when he was trying to escape as well as the rust on the stairwell. Leonard grabbed onto his arm to steady him, holding him up until he was steady on his feet again. 

“Did you hurt your feet, Jim?” 

Jim nodded slowly, shrinking in on himself when he heard the tone of Leonard’s voice. 

“It’s alright, Jim. I’m not mad.” Leonard backtracked quickly. 

Spock stepped over to where the two of them were standing near the stairs. “Leonard?”

Leonard turned to face the Vulcan and raised his eyebrow questioningly. 

“Pike has requested that I escort you and Jim to the hospital.” Spock said cordially, almost avoiding looking at Jim. “Does he require assistance to get to the car?” 

“Yeah, he does. He has cuts all over his feet and god only knows what he has gotten in them since he has been walking around on them this whole time.” Leonard turned to Jim and lowered his voice. “Jim, is it alright if Spock here picks you up? We’ll get to the car faster that way we can go to the hospital and get you fixed up, right quick.” 

Jim curled himself up against Leonard’s side as he turned and looked over at Spock. He seemed to be sizing the Vulcan up before he gave him a shy smile. “It’s alright. He seems nice.” 

Spock moved forward slowly, giving Jim time to see him coming, he knelt down so that he could wrap one of his arms around the back of Jim’s knees and the other arm supported Jim’s back as he tilted him backwards so that he could stand up. 

Jim rested his head against Spock’s chest and let his feet swing freely as he was carried up the stairs and out of the building. 

“Spock, sit him in the back seat, I’ll sit back there with him and see if I can keep him calm.” 

“With all due respect, Doctor, he does seem quite calm on his own.” 

“Yeah, well that’s for right now.” Leonard said as Spock set Jim down gently in the back of the car. “Children’s moods are pretty finicky, he does seem to remember me somewhat but we can’t predict what will happen when we get him to the hospital where crowds of people he doesn’t know will be swarming around him.”

Leonard walked around to the other side of the car and clambered into the backseat. Jim immediately scooched over across the seat and placed his head on Leonard’s shoulder, cuddling up to him with nothing more than a small smile. 

“When we get to the hospital, there’s going to be a lot of people there, you’re gonna have to stay calm for me okay, Jim?” 

Jim nodded, his eyes quickly drooping as he started to drift off into a peaceful sleep. 

“Spock.” Leonard whispered once he realized that Jim had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

“Yes, Leonard?” 

“Sulu told me while we were driving to the quarry that he managed to snag some of the files from Andreas’ office.” 

Spock glanced back at him sharply through the rearview mirror. “What files did he take.” 

“It was the files he had on the chemicals he used to alter Jim’s brain. Now that I know what chemicals he used and what dosages he used them in, I should be able to create something that’ll hopefully revert the changes so that he’ll be back to normal.” 

“That is a relief.” Spock said quietly. 

Leonard nodded to himself. “I need you to make what I need while I take care of Jim. When we get to the hospital I’ll get you all the information you need to make it.” 

“I will have it ready as soon as we can. The hospital should have a lab that I will be able to use.”

* * *

“Jim?” 

Jim’s brows furrowed as he made his slow way back to consciousness. He groaned softly, the sounds of beeping machinery and breathing bouncing around in his head. 

“Jim, can you hear me?” 

Jim sighed and finally he had enough strength to open his eyes, his vision was severely blurred but he could still make out some lights above his head. There were several other multi-colored blurs scattered all around the room. He groaned and tried to used his arms to lift himself up, his arm muscles were too weak and he just ended up slipping back down against the bio-bed under him. 

“Hey, don’t try to get up yet, Darlin’” He heard his boyfriend say to him as he placed a hand on Jim’s shoulder and pushed him back down onto the bed. “The stuff I gave you to fix your brain is gonna take a bit to do it’s job.” 

“Bones? Why is my vision so blurry?” He asked quietly as he stretched his hands out in front of him, they were nothing more than round pink colored blurs.

Leonard huffed and ran his hand through Jim’s hair affectionately. “Have you not listened to a word I said, you little infant? The medication I gave you will need a few more days before it works its way out of your system. You’ll have that severe blurry vision along with a few other problems over the next few days.” He explained softly. “The hospital is letting me use their facilities till you’re better, so you’ll have to stay here for a while.” 

Jim groaned and rested his head back against the backrest of the bed. He was laying there peacefully when he all of a sudden surged forward until he was nearly sitting straight up. Leonard lunged towards him to keep him from sitting all the way up and hurting himself even more. 

“What about Joanna!” Jim asked quickly as the last few days came back to him, for a second there he had forgotten about everything, about Frank kidnapping him and Joanna, about all the torture that had gone through. His mind had, for a split second, tricked him into thinking that he had just gotten hurt on a mission. 

“Joanna is fine, Jim. She was able to navigate her way to the hospital after you helped her escape.” Spock said from the corner of the room. “She has recovered and is back in Georgia with Leonard’s mother.”

He let out a sigh of relief and allowed Bones to push him back down against the bed once again. “Wait, how long have I been asleep that she’s recovered and back in Georgia already?” Jim asked desperately. 

“You’ve been unconscious for the last four days, Darlin’”

“Four days?!”

“Yeah it was four days, kid.” Pike said as he walked through the doors into Jim’s recovery room. 

Jim’s eyes bounced around the room trying to figure out which blob of color was talking to him. “Pike? Is that you? What are you doing here?” 

“Well, I was on my way back from the police station and Uhura let me know that you were beginning to wake up and I wanted to stop by, see how you were doing, give you guys all some good news.” 

Everyone in the room perked up at that. “Good news?”

“What’s going on?” 

“Riverside Police Department has officially decided to hand the case over to StarFleet in full so that we can prosecute everyone we see fit.” Pike announced. “The admiralty is planning to prosecute multiple people. Frank, obviously is one of them, he’ll be charged with the kidnapping and assault for both Jim and Joanna as well as unlawful imprisonment, rape and murder for Katie Bensler and the murder of the police officer and Admiral Locke.”

Sulu piped up from the other side of the room. “Who are the others that they are charging?” 

“Donald McGareth, Jackson Andreas, Officer Carr is going to be charged with obstruction of justice and Sheriff Mazzola is also going to be charged with obstruction of justice. Some of the admirals are going to go through the case files and see if we are missing anybody who was involved.” 

Everyone, even Spock, gave a huge sigh of relief at that information. 

“When do they go to trial?” 

Pike shook his head. “We don’t know yet, they’ll have to go through arraignment and we’ll have to see if anyone is willing to take a plea deal and all of that bureaucratic stuff. It’ll probably be a week or two at the earliest. The brass is willing to let you guys have an additional two weeks added onto your shoreleave so that you can...recover from your ideal.” 

Bones cocked his head with a suspicious look on his face. “Will Jim and Joanna have to testify in the trial?” 

“Jim will most likely have to testify in court. Joanna, however, will most likely be able to give her statement in the judge’s office and have it recorded to be played during the trial.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading you guys! Don't forget to comment or leave kudos. And let me know if you want another chapter to this story or if you prefer it to end as it is.


	13. The Road to Recovery is always Rocky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim finally is on the road to recovery. Of course, nothing ever truly happens according to plan when it comes to Jim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys, I'm so sorry for how long it took me to get this out. I originally intended for this to be the last chapter of this fic. However, it is taking me a ridiculously long time to get the last couple of scenes ironed out and meshed together. So this is technically what I like to call Chapter 13a because eventually what would have been the middle to end of this chapter will be posted later. And this first half of the ending was already almost 15,000 words by itself.
> 
> I actually have the very last few scenes already written and fleshed out but theres a few scenes in the middle I still have to work the kinks out of. Also during the course of writing the last part of the next chapter I ended up actually changing around some of the things I intended to happen as well as completely changing everything I had planned for Jim's brother Sam and particially changing what how I'm planning to incorporate Winona. 
> 
> Anyway, me posting this is essentially to let you guys know that I haven't abandoned this story, I know where its going and I do technically already have it ended. I just wanted to give you guys what I already had written and edited to sort of tie you over until I can post the ending. 
> 
> As always I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please comment to let me know if you liked it and any other opinions you have!

Jim sighed and shifted around on the bio-bed. He was alone in his room, for what was the first time he had been left alone since the whole Frank fiasco ended. His crew, despite vehemently arguing against it, were all stuck dealing with the admiralty interrogating them about what exactly the chain of events was during said previously mentioned fiasco. _Spock_ of all people had spent nearly two hours arguing with Admiral Komack about how they should all be interviewed individually so that someone could stay with Jim but the admirals had decided against that. 

And since Pike had been with his crew throughout the attempt to track Frank down, he wasn’t able to make any decisions about how the interviews were handled since he was also being interviewed. 

Which meant that Jim was going to be stuck in this bio bed alone until the admiralty had gotten their fill of grilling his family. 

“Jim!” A shrill voice called cheerfully as a warm body landed against his side with a thud. 

Jim jolted slightly at the sudden voice before he quickly rolled over and found himself crushed in the arms of a small brown and tan blur. “JoJo Bear!” He chuckled, he threw his arms out to wind them around what he thought was the general vicinity of Joanna’s waist to give her a firm hug. “What are you doing here, kiddo?” 

“Leonard asked if I could bring her here while everyone was gone.” 

Jim’s head turned sharply at the sound of another voice talking from the doorway. Judging by the blurred shape and the voice, the blur was most definitely Bones’ mother. “When did you guys get here?” Jim asked incredulously. “Bones told me that Jocelyn had taken Joanna back to Georgia.” 

“Joanna didn’t want to be away from you for too long and she convinced her mother to let me bring her here, especially after Leonard asked me to come and keep you company.” 

He was about to thank her for coming to see him and bringing Joanna with her but he stopped short when the nine year old started pulling away from him. He glanced down when he felt yet another thump as something jumped up on the bed with a soft _yip_. 

“Was that a...dog?” He asked softly, squinting at the tri-colored blur that was now sitting beside Joanna. 

He could vaguely see Joanna nodding next to him as she patted her lap and the panting mass drew a little closer to her side. “This is Moli.” She said matter of factly. “She’s a therapy dog that Grandma got me. She’s supposed to help me.” 

“Oh.” He started. “That’s good, I’m glad you got a companion to help you. What all does she do?” 

“She mostly just stays with me to make me feel safe but if I have a panic attack she helps me or if it’s a really bad one she goes and alerts someone and leads them back to me.” Joanna reached down and pet the dog on the head before leaning over to grab Jim’s hand and lead it over to the dog's snout. “Daddy told me you can’t see right now, cause of the stuff he gave you as medicine, but he said you should be feeling better in a week or two.”

Jim nodded and moved his hand so that he could pet the dogs head. “Yeah, your dad has been telling me the same thing. But I should be up and running around again soon.” 

Joanna leaned against him and wrapped her arms back around his waist. “Are you going to be coming back to Georgia with us or are you gonna be in the hospital for your whole leave? Daddy said you guys got extra leave so you have time to get better.”

“I would hope that I don’t have to spend the next four weeks of my shore leave in a hospital bed, JoJo.” He chuckled good naturedly. “Your dad was saying that I could probably leave the hospital in a couple of days since most of my injuries are already healed.” 

Jim didn’t have to be able to see to know that both McCoy’s in the room were giving him a very skeptical look that he had probably seen on Bones’ face a thousand times. “Well he said enough of them are healed, besides the ones that were caused by the medicine, that I would benefit from being in a non hospital setting.” He amended.

“Now that sounds more like my Lenny.” Mrs. McCoy laughed as she sat down in one of the chairs that his crew had scattered around the room. “So, how are you doing, Jim?” 

Jim hesitated, he wasn’t quite sure how to answer that question. Physically, besides the obvious blurry vision, there was a whole host of issues that the medication had cause though most of them were small and didn’t really need extensive care. Most of the injuries that had been directly inflicted by his captivity were gone and there wasn’t a trace of those injuries thanks to Bones. 

Mentally, he thought he was doing pretty okay, he wasn’t depressed or anything. Well, he was maybe a bit more anxious than he usually would be but he was trying to trick himself into thinking that the anxiety was just another side affects of Bones’ medicine. Emotionally he was pretty sure that what happened either hasn’t really hit him yet or he might just be subconsciously storing everything away like he usually does with anything that might be difficult to deal with. Granted storing everything away probably wasn’t great but it’s worked in the past.

“I think I’m doing okay considering the situation. I could be a bit better but hopefully once I’m out of this place it’ll start to look up.” He said sincerely, because what the hell, Bones’ mom shouldn’t be lied to, she was the first mother figure he ever really had and he couldn’t bring himself to disrespect her by lying to her face.

“That’s good, I’m glad to hear that.”

* * *

Jim yawned as he rolled over in the biobed, Joanna and Mrs. McCoy had stayed with him for about two hours before they went to get lunch. They had offered to go pick up the food and bring it back to eat with him but he could see how restless Joanna was inside the hospital. He wasn’t sure if it was because she had gone straight to the hospital after she escaped from Frank or if maybe she just didn’t want to stay in one place for to long. 

The dog that she had did seem to help her though and he was glad that Joanna had something to help her work through any issues that her kidnapping might have had on her. But since they had left for lunch Jim was kind of bored laying in the room by himself. He had tried to lay down and take a nap but he had never managed to stay still or sleep for long without some kind of sedative.

He had hoped that at least one of his senior crew would be back by now, obviously he had been wrong to think that. The admiralty probably decided to keep them for the whole day just to spite them for arguing about getting interviewed individually. 

Which left him horribly bored. 

“There’s gotta be something I can do.” Jim said sitting up. He grabbed a PADD that Bones had left on the side table for him before he left. 

There wasn’t much that he could do on the PADD since he couldn’t really see much but he could probably find the voice command option on the PADD without screwing it up too much. He fiddled around on the screen until he hit what he hoped was the settings button. 

“How the hell do you set up voice prompting.” The PADD gave a few angry beeps in protest of whatever button he had just pressed. “C’mon PADD just work with me, just this one time.” The PADD of course just kept on protesting every single things he pressed until he finally had enough of fiddling around with it. 

He huffed and threw the PADD down onto the bed beside him. He squirmed around and tried to get comfortable on the hard mattress among all the beeping and noises of the medbay outside of his room. He may have a private room thanks to his captain’s status but now that no one was in the room with him and he was trying to relax it seemed like the walls had suddenly lost all of their sound deadening capabilities. 

It was irritating as hell.

It also didn’t help that the medicine Bones had given him left him with sore and inflamed muscles that made it hard to relax and get comfy. 

“Maybe I should have asked Bones for a sedative before he left. At least then I wouldn’t be bored.” 

“No but you would be dead asleep for the rest of the day.” A voice called from the door to his room. 

Jim jolted upright in the bed and turned to look at the door, not that he could really see anything besides a tall blue blur. “Bones! What are you doing back?”

Bones came over and set something down on the side table before leaning over and kissing Jim lightly on the lips. “The admiralty had the decency to let all of us out for lunch.” He said. Jim could hear the soft clinking of utensils and dishes as Bones moved around throughout the room. “Everyone else is out getting some food to bring back to the hospital, we only have an hour for lunch so everyone wants to come eat with you.”

Jim blinked at that. “Oh, Bones you can tell them that they don’t have to eat with me, if they want to go somewhere and eat they don’t have to bring their food here.” 

“Jim, you and I both know that they want to see you, hell none of them even wanted to leave this morning and we wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for the brass being a bunch of assholes.” Bones sat down in the chair next to his bed and pulled the side table a little bit closer. “Now I got you a hamburger and some fries. Don’t let it go to your head cause I’m only lettin’ you eat this since I know you're miserable in here.” Bones helped him sit up and propped a pillow up behind his back to keep him upright. There was a warm tray placed on his lap and Bones sat back in his chair to start eating his own meal. 

They hadn’t even really started eating when the door to the room swished open behind them. In walked the whole of his senior command crew followed by Pike, Joanna and Mrs. McCoy. 

“Look who we found in the hallway.” Uhura said cheerfully as they walked into the room.

“Hey guys!” Jim called back with a small smile on his face. His whole crew came over and one by one they gave him a hug as did Bones’ mom. Joanna, however just went ahead and hopped up on the bed and crawled next to Jim, though she was careful not to bump into or disturb his food. “Hi, JoJo bear. How was your lunch?” 

“Lunch was good.” Joanna answered as she snuggled into Jim’s side. “Moli scared a guy but I missed you.” 

Jim smiled and kissed her on the top of her head. “You weren’t even gone an hour, Joanna. That’s not enough time to miss someone.” 

“Yes it is! I miss you and daddy every time you leave Georgia.” 

“Well I miss you to.” 

Joanna was suddenly plucked from his side by her father who placed her on the chair between him and his mother. Bones kissed her on the cheek and set a small plate of some kind of dessert on her lap. “Let Jim eat, JoJo. He’s bad enough about remembering to eat as it is.” 

The crew that had scattered throughout the room all chuckled at that and Jim could feel himself blushing a bit as he munched on a fry. The room was almost silent except for the sounds of everyone eating and a few hushed words between the little groups that had formed. Everyone seemed pretty content to just sit, talk and eat their food while they had time to spend together before going back to get grilled by the brass. At least the brass had the decency to move the investigation team to Iowa instead of making everything be moved to San Francisco. The Admirals that were in charge of the investigation, Barnett and Nogura, had also come down with the investigation team so that they could interview Jim’s crew and Pike without having everyone go back and forth to San Francisco. 

“How are you feeling, Jim?” Spock asked when he saw that Jim had finished his food. 

“I could be better.” Jim answered honestly, though he was tempted to fall back on his usual disarming humor to get everyone’s focus off of him. “I’m tired and sore as all hell and I can’t see for shit but I’m doing okay, given the situation.” 

“Holy shit. I think we just got a real answer from Jim.” Sulu said with a disbelieving laugh.

Jim laughed softly, he was about to say something but he was interrupted by Pike’s comm unit going off and filling the room with its chiming. Pike looked down at the comm and sighed before looking up to see that everyone’s attention was on him. 

Bones looked at Pike with a scowl on his face. “Let me guess our lunch time is up?” 

“Yep. Looks like we need to head out.” Pike said as he stood up. Everyone else groaned and stood up as well, they all seemed to lollygag in the room trying to draw out the amount of time they could spend with their captain. 

“Go ahead, guys. No need to piss off Nogura and Barnett any more than they already are.” Jim said as they slowly came up to hug him and drag their feet out the door. Bones gave him another kiss to the forehead and Joanna hopped back up onto the bed as soon as Bones and the others were fully out the dog.

* * *

Bones groaned as he lugged a bag full of clothing and toiletries into the hospital. He hadn’t told Jim yet but he thought his boyfriend was ready to leave the hospital. Well honestly he might have kept him in his medbay a little longer if he had been on the Enterprise but they weren’t on the ship any more and this wasn’t injuries from a mission gone wrong. He had done everything he could to heal up as many of Jim’s injuries as he could. 

At this point the only things left to deal with were the side effects from the medication he had been given and the eventual fallout from this whole ordeal. There wasn’t anything that he could do in the hospital that he couldn’t do at home in Georgia or at home on the Enterprise. 

That wasn’t even mentioning the fact that the brass has finally concluded interviewing the senior crew after nearly three days of non stop interviewing from practically sun up to sundown. So now that they weren’t being forced to show up at the local police station to do interviews they had officially been given leave to spend the rest of their almost four weeks of shoreleave however they wanted. 

Provided they made sure to show up when the brass started the trial for all of the people they ended up charging with crimes. Joanna was also going to have to give her account to a judge in chambers and Jim would most likely have to testify in the trial so the Enterprise wasn’t going to be shipping out on any official missions until that was all said and done. 

Which just meant, in Leonard’s mind, that he had more time to spend with his daughter and Jim to help them through this ordeal. It also meant that he wouldn’t have to worry about Jim being crushed under the pressure and stress of being back in the captain’s position. 

Leonard finally walked up to the doors that led to Jim’s room. If he was lucky, Jim would still be asleep. He could wake him up, give him the pain meds he’s been getting for the aching joints and muscles then spring the fact that he was going to be taking him to Georgia on him. 

Hopefully, that would make Jim feel a bit better since he had been feeling a bit down about the fact that none of the side effects were going away. Leonard had been hoping that the side effects would have lessen or gone away completely but they seemed to have fun lingering. 

“Jim?” 

Leonard stepped into the darkened room and called for the lights to come on. Jim was laying on the bed facing away from the door. Leonard crept closer to the bed and set his bag down on the chair next to the bed. 

“Jim.” He called shaking Jim’s shoulder lightly. “Jim.” 

Jim groaned and stretched. “Bones?” He rolled over to face the other man with a sleepily confused look on his face. 

“Hey, sweetheart. It’s time to get up so I can give you your medicine.” Bones got off the edge of the bed and pulled two of his hypospray’s out of his bag. One for the pain and one for muscle spasms which had started to crop up about two days after Jim woke up. “Once you have your medicine I have a surprise for you.” 

Jim perked up, he slowly sat up with Bones’ help and swung his legs over the edge of the bio bed. He leaned forward and let his head fall onto Bones’ shoulder. “What’s my surprise?” Jim murmured against Bones’ shoulder. 

Leonard pressed the two hypos into Jim neck as gently as he could then he pushed Jim back a little so he could reach behind himself and get his bag. “You get to leave the hospital today.” 

“Really?” Jim sat up a little straighter as the medications started to work their way through his system. “I get to leave?” 

Bones nodded as he helped Jim stand up. Jim leaned heavily against his side while they walked over to the sonic shower that was in the bathroom in the corner. Bones supported him while he stood in the shower and cleaned himself. 

It took longer than it usually would for Jim to get a shower because of how slow he had to move but eventually he was as clean as he was going to be after getting a sonic shower. Jim sat on the edge of the bed to pull his shirt and his pants on. “So where are we going? Are we getting a hotel here in Iowa or are we heading back to San Francisco.” 

“Neither.” Bones said with a smile. “We are gonna head to Georgia.” 

Jim looked up with shocked written on his face. “What? Don’t we need to be here or in San Fran for the trial? For the interviews?”

Leonard shook his head and helped Jim stand back up again. “The interviews are over, they squeezed out all the information they could and the trials aren’t going to happen for at least another two maybe three weeks. Hell, they said it might even be a month or two depending on whether anyone takes a plea or decides to start throwing out court motions to try and stall the proceedings.” 

“What about the Enterprise?” 

Once Bones was done giving him his hypos he quickly signed the forms that would allow Jim to be released from the hospital. Though before they started leaving the hospital Bones made sure to scan him one last time with his trusty tricorder to make sure he hadn’t missed anything that might hinder Jim’s recovery. 

“Well the crew still has almost a whole four weeks of shoreleave left since we all got an extension on our shoreleave, so the ship is still getting the repairs that we stopped to get in the first place.”

“Yeah but even if I need to be here for the trial, they can still send the ship out on a few milk runs under a different captain.”

Bones gave him a sceptical look. “For one, they might be able to use a temporary captain but replacing the whole senior crew is going to be a disaster and they’d rather just put the Enterprise on hold under the guise of repairs than have to tell the world that they let their golden boy get kidnapped under their damn noses.”

“Why would they need to replace the whole senior crew? You guys didn’t do anything wrong.” He said confused and angry. He didn’t want his crew getting in trouble for something that only involved him. 

“Not permanently, you baby.” Leonard huffed. “But since we were all involved in chasing Frank down and we were the ones who found most of his horrible deeds, we all have to be involved and on hand for the trial just like you do.” 

It took them a few minutes to check out of the hospital and get to the car that Bones had rented since Jim had to stop and rest every couple of feet. Bones had offered to get him a wheelchair but Jim as usual had refused. 

“You ready to go to Georgia?” Bones asked as he piled the last of their stuff into the back of the car. 

“Are we driving the whole way there?” 

Bones jumped in the driver's seat and started up the car. “Hell no, I’m not driving all the way to Georgia. There’s a shuttle station that’ll take us to Atlanta and I’ll drive us to my Mama’s house in GreenBriar.”

* * *

Jim?” Leonard called as he stepped through the door to the guest house that his mama had on the back half of her property. He, Jim and Joanna had been occupying it for the last week since Jim had been released from the hospital in Riverside. Well he and Jim had been occupying it for the last week. Joanna hadn’t started staying there until four days ago. When they had first gotten back from the hospital Joanna hadn’t been staying with them, since Jocelyn had decided to start fighting Leonard over whether or not it was a good idea for her to be around the Enterprise crew after what happened to her and Jim. 

But after a few nights of being plagued with nightmares that even her service dog couldn’t bring her out of and Joanna constantly fighting with her mother about how she wanted to be around Jim, well, even Jocelyn had to change her mind at that point. 

It had definitely been a good decision because being around Jim had made Joanna feel safe and had lessened her nightmares almost tenfold while being around Joanna had significantly decreased the guilt that Jim had been feeling about getting Joanna looped into Frank’s horrible games. 

“Darlin’?” He called again as he set the groceries that he had been carrying in onto the kitchen counter. “Actin’ like you don’t hear me callin’ ain’t gonna keep you from havin’ to put groceries away.”

When there wasn’t any answer he trotted up the stairs and down the hall to reach the bedroom that he and Jim had taken to using as their own. The scene that he came upon when he opened the door somehow managed to warm his heart and make it ache horribly at the same time. Jim was laying on his side on the bed, fast asleep with one arm wrapped firmly around Joanna and the other one clutching Baby Bones. Baby Bones of course, being the stuffed puppy that Uhura and Chekov had given Jim during the whole Delvia incident. 

The sight of his boyfriend and his daughter sleeping cuddled up together made his smile and there were no words to explain how glad he was to see them helping each other sleep. But the fact that Baby Bones was held tightly in Jim’s other arm was what made his heart ache, because the only time Jim ever slept with Baby Bones was when he was having a horrible time sleeping. 

On the other hand, Jim only ever slept with Baby Bones when he was willing to admit to himself that he was having trouble coping with something, so it also meant the he was trying to help himself move forward from this whole ordeal. 

Leonard sighed quietly and moved towards the side of the bed that Joanna was on. He rested a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her awake, he held a finger to his lips as her eyes fluttered open sleepily so that she knew he wanted her to be quite. 

“I don’t want to wake Jim up yet. Can you go downstairs and put the groceries away, JoJo?” He whispered to her and gestured towards the bedroom door. 

She nodded and slowly wiggled out from under Jim’s arm. She snuck off the bed, nudging her dog with her toes until the pup scampered out into the hallway in front of her, then she tiptoed out the door to make sure she didn’t wake Jim up. 

Once Leonard was sure she was gone he exhaled slowly and walked around the bed so that he was on Jim's side. He slowly sat down on the mattress next to him and placed a hand on Jim’s shoulder. He let it rest there for at least a minute, until he was sure that Jim had subconsciously gotten used to the weight of it, then he gently started to shake Jim.

He tried not to shake him to violently because he wanted to wake him, not startle him and get his face punched in. “Darlin’” He called softly.

He could see Jim’s eyes fluttering beneath his eyelids as he started to drift back towards consciousness. “Jim.” 

Jim groaned softly and rolled over to lay down on his stomach, his stuffed puppy pressed between him and the mattress. Bones sighed and reached over to shake him again. “C’mon Darlin’, it’s time to wake up, you’ve gotta get your medicine and I’m gonna be makin’ breakfast soon.” 

“Don’t wan’ breakfast.” Jim slurred into his pillow as he shook of Leonard’s hand and curled up further in his blanket.

“You still feelin’ nauseas?” Bones asked. 

Jim lifted himself up off the pillow just enough to turn his head and look at Bones’ face. “M’ cold now to.” 

Bones rubbed his forehead in irritation. It was just like Jim’s immune system to crop up new symptoms in reaction to a medicine that should have already run it’s course. That wasn’t even counting the side effects that came from reworking his brain chemistry back to normal. “How’s the blurry vision? Has that gotten better at least?” 

Jim just shook his head and laid back down amongst the pillows. “Still c’nt see.” 

“How about you go and get a shower, I’ll get one of the thermal heating blankets I brought with me and set it up on the reclining chair in the livingroom and you can sit there and sleep or talk to Joanna while I make breakfast.” 

“Okay.” Jim slowly uncurled his arm from around Baby Bones and let Bones untangle the covers from around his legs. “Can you help me to the bathroom.” 

“‘Course Darlin.” Bones said softly as he took Jim’s arm and helped him stand up from the bed. “I’ll give you your medicine when you come out of the shower alright?”

Jim just nodded, slowly moving to strip off his clothes and step into the shower. At least the guest house had some running water instead of the sonic showers that the hospital had. He stood under the warm water of the shower letting the warmth work its way into his body, letting it soothe the tenseness in his aching muscles and chase away the chill that had settled in his bones. 

He barely had the strength to even lift his arm to wash himself but once he stood in the water for a few minutes he managed to make himself move and get clean. When he was finally done showering and had managed to build up enough strength to get moving again he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. 

He sluggishly moved through the bathroom and into the bedroom to slump down onto the side of the bed where Bones had conveniently placed a clean set of clothes. Jim, for a split second, contemplated just letting himself fall onto his side on the bed and go back to sleep. But he knew he had to get up and go downstairs. 

The stairs themselves were a whole nother obstacle to face. They may have stayed in the house for a week already but Jim still hadn’t gotten used to traversing up and down the stairs everyday with how badly his muscles had been hurting. Not to mention the fact that he also couldn’t really see where one step ended and the next one began. 

“This is fucking ridiculous, Kirk.” He growled to himself when he had to stop and take a rest against the banister not even half way down the stairs. “C’mon pull yourself together, you never had trouble getting down a simple flight of stairs before Fran-.” 

Suddenly his heart started aching within his chest and he could feel his breathing start to stutter. It felt like the world had dropped out from beneath his feet. Jim kept one hand firmly on the banister rail as he slowly lowered himself down to sit on the step. He tried to take a deep steady breath but it only led to him sucking in faster and faster breaths that did nothing to help the light headedness that had begun building up in the back of his skull.

“Bon-” He tried to call out for Bones. The call didn’t come out as he intended though, instead it came out weaker than a whimper. He tried again and this time he barely even made more sound than a squeak let alone an actual word. 

Jim could hear himself begin to hyperventilate and the house around him got even more distorted and blurry as hot tears started streaming down his face. 

“Daddy!” Jim vaguely heard Joanna’s shout from somewhere off to the side of the stairs followed by a loud yapping bark. “Dad!”

There was the thundering sound of footsteps on the stairs below him and then Bones’ hand was on his arm and the other arm was wrapped around his shoulders. Bones pulled him down so that his head was between his knees. 

“Joanna, take Moli and go back into the kitchen, okay?” 

Joanna bit her lip as she looked at Jim and hesitated at the bottom of the staircase. “But-” 

“Joanna, please.” Bones pleaded. “Go check on the food and make sure it doesn’t burn.” 

Bones could hear the wheezing, panicked breaths that Jim was taking. He made sure that he kept his head between his knees and he kept his hand on Jim’s back so that he could attempt to help him. 

“Jim.” He called softly once Jim’s breathing had started to return to a normal pace. “You back with me, Darlin’?”

Jim’s whole body seemed to be trembling when he finally looked up at Bones, the look on his face made Bones grab him around the shoulders and pull him over so that he was pressed against Bones’ chest. “It’s alright, Jim. It’s alright.” He soothed as they rocked back and forth as much as they could on the stairs. “You’re okay.”

Jim sniffled against his chest and pushed far enough away that he could turn his blurry vision onto Bones’ face. “Sorry about that.” He said softly. 

“What happened?” Bones asked. 

“I-I don’t know, I was trying to walk down the stairs and I had to take a breather.” Jim said around a shuddery breath. “I was irritated about the fact that I couldn’t even get down a flight of stairs and I started to talk to myself and say that I didn’t have this much trouble doing stuff before...before F-Fra-.” Jim cut himself off with a sharp intake of breath.

Bones sighed and shifted so that he could help Jim stand up. “C’mon, let's go into the living room, we’ll talk in there instead of on the stairs.” 

Jim just nodded, letting Bones pull him up off the stairs. They slowly made their way down the stairs and into the livingroom. Bones sat him down on the reclining chair, he pulled the blanket that he had left draped across the back of the chair down and spread it out overtop of Jim’s lap. 

Jim let him tuck the blanket in around him with his head hung low. He knew that Bones was no doubt going to lecture him about how everything was Frank’s fault and that he shouldn’t blame himself for anything that happened but he really didn’t want to hear it. 

Part of him knew that it was true. That he had no control over what Frank did to him or Joanna or any of the other people that Frank had hurt. But that knowledge, that he couldn’t control what had happened to him, that he couldn’t _protect_ the people he loved, that was what kept wearing him down. Every time he thought about it his heart ached and his head felt like it had been stuffed full of hot steam. 

Bones was also right of course, that he blamed himself for dragging Joanna into Frank’s path. But this wasn’t about guilt. Not this time at least. 

This time it was all about control. 

Bones sat down on the sofa across from Jim with a sigh. “I know you're probably waiting for me to tell you that this is all Frank's fault.” Bones started. “But I know that’s not what you need to hear right now.” 

Jim looked up in shock. 

“You may think you have been through worse, and chances are you have been through worse than this, but no matter how many times you go through trauma every single trauma reacts differently in your brain every time.” 

“I know, Bones.” Jim said softly. 

“I know we’ve talked about this before, Jim. Your brain is trying to get over this trauma and to me it looks like it’s doing a good job of it.” 

Jim blinked, the look of shock from before still on his face. “Usually you tell me I’m doing a shitty job at coping with trauma.” 

“Because usually you lock yourself away from everyone and bury whatever happened deep in your mind or you fight and fuck your way to shutting out the memories of what happened.” 

“What makes you think I’m not doing that this time? I haven’t exactly been forth coming about what Frank did while I was with him.” Jim frowned slightly and bit his lip at the admission that he hadn’t truly meant to leave his brain.

Bones chuckled and held up his pointer finger to start counting. “Well for starters you admitted to my mother and to your senior crew that you ‘could be better’ which is already an improvement over your usual motto of everything is fine until you collapse.” Bones ticked off his second finger. “Second, this morning you told me straight away that not only has your vision not gotten any better but you now have nausea and chills as more symptoms.” 

Jim opened his mouth to start talking but Bones simply held his hand up to stop him as he continued on. “On the stairs when you had your panic attack as soon as you were able to talk again you told me what had cause the panic attack. You can’t tell me that before this you would have done that because you’ve always shrugged stuff like that off.” 

Bones probably would have carried on telling him all the things he had done differently had Joanna not chosen that moment to step into the living room and announce that breakfast was done.

“I’ll be in in a minute, Jo. You can go ahead and start eating.” Bones said, waving Joanna back into the kitchen. Then he turned to Jim as he stood up. “It’s good that you’re being more open, Jim. It just means you’re trusting everyone a little more. I’m gonna go bring your breakfast out here.” 

“Okay.” 

Jim waited until Bones had made it back into the kitchen before hunkering down into the warm blanket that had been tucked in around him. He pulled it up slightly and wrapped it around the bottom portion of his face. He sighed at the warmth that washed up against his face, he knew it was the side effect of changing his brain chemistry that was causing him to be cold and have all the other shitty symptoms he had but it didn’t make it less irritating.

He took a few deep, even breaths and squirmed as far as he could into the overstuffed reclining chair. Every so often he could hear the clinking of dishes and utensils in the kitchen. A few minutes later and Bones was stepping around the corner with two plates, one on each hand, while Joanna was trailing behind him with another plate and Moli was hot on her trail trying her best to walk and sniff at the plate full of food. 

Jim smelt the food and for a second it smelt delicious but then the smell started to make his stomach roil. He tugged the blanket up further to cover his nose when Bones sat down on the couch across from him. 

“You still feelin’ nausea?” Bones asked when he saw the look on Jim’s face at the plate that had been sat down on the coffee table. When Jim got a little green around the gills he quickly grabbed the plate and moved it as far away as he could. “I’ll take that as a yes.” 

Jim nodded solemnly, thankful that the cover was doing a lot to keep the smell of the food from reaching him. Joanna and Bones had both started to dig into their meals, while the little emotional support dog at Joanna’s feet looked back and forth between Joanna and Jim. The dog let out a huffing noise before turning and hopping up on the reclining chair with Jim. 

“Moli!” Bones scolded. He set his plate down on the coffee table and moved to stand up and pick the corgi up off of Jim’s lap. Moli quickly turned in a sharp circle and plopped down on Jim’s stomach, burrowing gently into the warm blanket and pressing her snout against his stomach. “C’mon, dog. Down!” 

Jim waved him back to his seat easily. “It’s alright, Bones.” He said softly as he reached one hand out from under the blanket to pet at the puppy’s head. “She just thinks I need a little comfort is all. She’s probably right.” 

Bones reluctantly sat back down and started eating his breakfast again, Moli preened and let her tongue roll out of her mouth when Jim scratched her behind the ears. “As long as you’re okay with her sitting on your lap, I guess it’s okay with me.” 

They sat in silence for the next few minutes while Bones and Joanna ate and Jim kept petting Moil. 

“I can see why she helps you feel better, JoJo.” Jim announced quietly. 

Bones looked up at him with a strange look. “Is she really helpin’ you that much just by sittin’ there?” 

Jim nodded. “It’s really calming to have something that trusts you so much and gives affection so freely without judging you at all. And she’s kinda cute.” Jim said lightly, trying to break up a bit of the tension.

“Maybe we should get a service dog for you then?”

“There wouldn’t really be a point, not when I would only have it for a few weeks at the most before we ship back out on the Enterprise.” 

Bones tilted his head to the side as he contemplated that statement. “I’m sure there’s some kind of regulation for service dogs on starships. I’ll ask Spock later.” 

“Okay.”

* * *

Leonard sighed, he had already sent out a message to Spock and Uhura two days ago about the service dog. The two of them were off visiting Uhura’s family and they had sent him a message back stating that they had received his message and would look into it before getting back to him as soon as they can. Then of course shortly after he made sure both Jim and Joanna were safely tucked into bed and fast asleep, Uhura had sent him a comm message to know that they had found something worth talking about. 

Now he was just sitting in the living room waiting for them to comm him and tell him what they had discovered. Finally the comm unit lit up and started ringing, the sound echoed in the empty room for a few seconds until Bones snatched it up. 

“Well? What did you find?” He asked quickly as soon as the call started. 

There was a pause on the other end before Spock started speaking. “Lieutenant Uhura and I have found two regulations that pertain to the use and maintenance of service dogs for Starfleet officers.” 

“Is it for Starfleet officers on a starship or Starfleet officers who are stationed on a starbase or on earth?” Bones asked before he let Spock continue on. “Cause if it's for someone homebound or station bound it’s going to be useless.”

“These two regulations pertain to Starfleet officers aboard starships.” Spock clarified. “The first simply states that officers may have a service animal should they have a need of it and that they need to refer to the second regulation for any and all requirements.”

Bones groaned and rolled his eyes. “Well what does the second regulation say?” 

“The second regulation states that as long as a medical or psychiatric professional sends a notice of intent to use a service animal to the immediate superior of the officer in question, along with a written explanation of the conditions requiring the use of a service animal, then the request for use of a service animal should be granted.” 

“That’s all it takes to have a service animal on a starship?” Bones asked incredulously. He had thought that there would have been a shit ton of hoops to jump through. “All I have to do is state what condition he has that he needs a service animal to assist him with and that’s all it’ll take?” 

Spock shook his head and raised an eyebrow. “This particular regulation also states that the ship on which the officer and animal reside must have a licensed veterinarian on the ship at all times. The animal must be neutered or spayed prior to being brought aboard the ship as well as have a full panel of vaccinations that are up to date.” 

“Okay.” Bones said slowly. “Anything else I need to know before I go about getting Jim a service dog?” 

“The animal must be housebroken, have extensive service animal training and be able to perform a specific task to help the officer in question or provide some form of emotional support.”

“That seems easy enough. I’ll tell Pike what’s going on so that he can approve of the service dog and hopefully he can find a licensed veterinarian that works for Starfleet.”

Leonard was about to hang up the call, since Spock had paused for nearly a minute. “Doctor, I would suggest a small amount of restraint in the wording of your letter for the reason behind Jim needing a service dog.” 

That made Leonard frown and scowl at the comm unit. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, Spock? Do think I’m so incompetent that I can’t write a simple letter?”

“I simply mean, Doctor, that we do not need to give anyone on the Admiralty any reason to remove Jim from his captain’s rank or from Starfleet completely.” 

“You think that they would take away Jim’s commission just for needing a service dog?” 

“There are some superior officers that have found Jim’s quick rising through the ranks to be...undeserved at best. I simply do not wish to see them try and take away Jim’s commission by claiming that he is emotionally unstable.” 

Leonard huffed and leaned back in the chair, as much as he hated to admit it Spock did have a point that this would be an excellent opportunity for anyone who didn’t like Jim to get his commission taken away. He would definitely either have to word the notice carefully or make sure that only Pike saw and approved it so that it couldn’t be used against Jim. 

“I’ll see if Pike can be the one to approve the request but even then I’ll make sure to word it lightly.” 

“Good.”

* * *

“How’d your conversation with Spock go?” Jim asked from where he was once again curled up on the reclining chair in the living room. He seemed to be spending most of his time in this chair since he was still always cold and mostly unable to see. His most recent trip down the stairs had shown that it was probably better for him to be stationary for the most part. 

Bones huffed and rolled his eyes as he set down a plate of food in front of Jim. “Do you always listen in on my conversations?” 

“I wasn’t listening in, Bones. I was asleep when you called him. I just know that you don’t like to wait when you think something might be able to help me.” 

“Eat your food, you infant.” 

Jim smiled and dug into his food, he ate the scrambled eggs and bacon ravenously, this was the first time since he had gotten out of the hospital that he actually felt good enough to eat. “So how did the talk go?” 

“It went good. He found two regulations that will allow you to have a service animal on the Enterprise when we go back.” 

Jim was somewhat shocked at that, he set his fork down and swallowed the last bite of food he had taken. “Really? What do we have to do?” 

“I just have to send a notice of intent, so that the brass knows you intend to have a service dog on the ship and tell them why you need it. We’ll also have to make sure the dog is spayed or neutered and has all of it’s shots. Pike’s also looking into any certified vet’s that work with StarFleet since we need to have one of them on hand at all times.” 

“That’s...surprisingly easy.” Jim said slowly. 

“That’s what I said.” Bones agreed with a chuckle. “But we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Jim laughed. “What does that even mean?” 

The two of them sat in a companionable silence simply enjoying each others presences and their meals. They stayed like that for almost a half an hour before the front door to the house open and closed with a bang followed by thudding footsteps and the clicking of claws on the ground. 

Neither of them had time to get up before Joanna was thundering around the corner and into the living room, she plopped down on the couch next to Bones and Moli jumped up onto Jim’s lap, nearly taking out his plate of food in the attempt to get her back feet up onto the chair. 

“What’s gotten into you to?” Jim asked at the same time that Bones asked, “How was your ride?” 

Joanna was practically vibrating in her seat as she started recounting the tale of her horseback riding adventure. Jim sat back and started petting Moli with a small smile on his face. He loved watching Bones and Joanna together, they made such a happy little family together. It was one of the few times that Bones had a near constant smile on his face, most of the time when he and Bones were alone he would have a smile on his face but once they were out in public again it would disappear. It was nice to see his boyfriend relaxed and happy. 

“Grandma said that soon enough I’ll be able to ride Emma without supervision.” Joanna said excitedly. “And Moli and Emma get along really well, Grandma was worried that having Moli around might spook Emma.”

“I’m glad your ride went so well, now are you ready for breakfast? There should still be some hashbrowns and eggs left in the pan on the stove for you.” Bones barely even managed to finish his sentence and then Joanna was off bounding into the kitchen, Moli hopping off of Jim and running off hot on her trail. “Don’t feed any of your breakfast to Moli!” Bones called after her. 

“She’s getting rambunctious.” Jim chuckled as he picked up his plate and started eating again. 

Bones put his empty plate on the coffee table and just sat back watching Jim eat, though this time he was slowly eating his food. “She’s getting back to her old self and I’m more than glad to see it.” He said. “I was worried that she might not be able to recover from…” 

“She’s a strong little girl.” Jim’s gaze drifted over to the entryway to the kitchen. “I knew she would bounce back.” 

“So will you.” 

Jim smiled faintly and looked over at Bones. “Once these other symptoms go away I’ll practically be fine, Bones.” 

Bones raised an eyebrow. “Practically? There you go admitting you aren’t completely fine again, you know I might be getting a little worried that you aren’t really James T. Kirk.” His voice was light but his eyes said that he was serious. 

Jim looked away, back to the kitchen where the faint sounds of Joanna eating and conversing with Moli floated into the living room. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t know how to explain it, Bones. I...I just feel like something has changed. Within in me.” Jim sighed, though Bones could hear that it was more of a relieved sigh. “I think it’s a change for the better.” 

“But it doesn’t really matter.” Jim said with a breathy laugh. He waved his hand through the air like he was trying to physically wave away the tension that had started to seep into the air. “Did Pike say when Joanna was going to have to testify for the Judge?” 

“We have to leave sometime early tomorrow so that she can be in San Francisco to testify. We’ll probably have to stay there until the trial is over.” 

“Have you told her that?” 

Bones nodded and looked towards the kitchen. “She knows, I told her yesterday, she isn’t happy about having to talk about what happened again but she knows it’ll help you and that’s all that matters to her.” 

“Where are we staying once we get back to San Fran?” Jim asked curiously. 

“I’m not sure, Pike said that he had booked us some housing a little bit away from the academy since the trial will be going on at StarFleet headquarters.” Bones said. “We’ll find out when we get there tomorrow. Apparently everyone else will be getting there tomorrow morning as well and we should all be right near each other.” 

“It’ll be nice to see everyone again.”

* * *

Bones groaned and stretched out his arms and legs as he stepped off the shuttle. He may have spent a year on and off in space but he still hated anything to do with flying. No matter how much Jim and Joanna tried to distract him, nothing could take his mind off of the fact that they were flying through the air.

A giggle followed by a yip was all the warning he got before Joanna barreled straight into the back of his legs, nearly bowling him over in her haste to keep Moli from yanking the leash out of her hand. At least the pup shared his sentiment about flying in those metal death traps.

“Joanna, don’t get too far away!” Bones called out when he saw Moli dragging her away from the shuttle station.

“I know, Dad! Go get Jim before he thinks we abandoned him.” She called back as she ran with Moli. 

Bones huffed at the easy dismissal and turned back to the shuttle. Jim was still sitting inside though now he was fumbling around with the seatbelt that was holding him in place. The blurred vision wasn’t exactly conducive to being able to maneuver small objects. 

“You need some help there, darlin’?” Bones asked with a chuckle after Jim threw his hands in the air with a frustrated groan. 

Jim crossed his arms over his chest and pouted in the direction of Bones’ voice. “How long did you say this blurry vision is supposed to last?” 

Bones leaned down and quickly undid Jim’s seatbelt so that he could help him stand up out of the seat. “I’m hoping it’ll only be another week but we’ll have to got to starfleet medical when we have some free time so I can get an in-depth look at what’s goin on in that brain o’ yours, cause the blurred vision should have been gone if not at least somewhat diminished by now.”

Jim smirked and stumbled his way towards the exit of the shuttle. “Bones, I think we both know that with me nothing ever actually goes as planned or, more importantly, as hoped.” 

Bones snorted, grabbing a hold of Jim’s shoulder so that he didn’t trip on the way out of the shuttle. Bones took a quick look around to figure out where his daughter had went, he couldn’t see any sign of her but he could hear the vague sounds of her giggling off in the distance towards the main building of the shuttle station. “C’mon let’s go get my daughter before that pup of hers drags her off to god knows where.” 

Jim sucked in a deep breath of fresh air as he allowed Bones to tug him along towards the blurred building in the distance. He had loved the last two weeks that he had been staying in Georgia, he really did, but there was something about San Francisco that made him happy. It was a sentimental type of happiness. San Francisco had been a new start for him, a way to get away from the horror that had been his life with Frank. It also was where he met Bones and where StarFleet was. StarFleet had given him Bones, a family and a new start where he could live up to the potential he never could bring himself to believe he had. 

StarFleet wasn’t home though and he couldn’t really say that San Fran was either. Bones, the stars and the mismatched little family that he had built for himself would always be what he considered his home. 

When they finally found Joanna she was kneeling on the grass next to Moli, who was currently trying to tunnel her way to the other side of the planet. Bones wrangled the dog out of the dirt and handed her leash back to Joanna. 

“So did Pike tell you where we are going to be staying yet?” 

“He gave me a street address and a keycode to get in the front door but nothing other than that. It didn’t get the chance to look it up before we left but I think it’s somewhere out near Potrero Hill.” 

Jim cocked his head to the side as he thought about the layout of the city. “I don’t think I’ve been out to that part of San Fran yet.” 

Bones grabbed his arm gently and steered him towards the sidewalk as they tried to hail a cab. “We went to that bar out in DogPatch in the first year of the academy, Potrero Hill is right across the highway.” 

Jim was mostly silent during the car ride. He was leaning against Bones’ shoulder, letting his mind wander as he had been doing for the last few days. His lose of focus was, of course, another lovely side effect but thankfully it was one of the few that was dwindling quickly instead of lingering around. Every once in a while Bones or Joanna would direct a question at him but they both knew that his mind was constantly wandering off and he wasn’t necessarily paying attention. 

He was practically dozing off in his seat when they finally arrived at their temporary home and Bones had to shake him a few times before he actually realised the car had stopped. He let Bones help him out of the car and while the vision was blurred horribly he could easily say that the house was huge. Even if Bones hadn’t gasped or Joanna hadn’t squealed in delight before running up the sidewalk, just from the blurry outline of the house it was clearly huge. 

“Don’t worry we had pretty much the same reaction.”

Jim jumped at the sound of Uhura’s voice coming from behind him, he whirled around to face the red clad blur. “Uhura?” 

“Pike arranged for us to be in the house across from the one he has rented for yourself and Dr. McCoy.” The blue blur next to Uhura announced. 

Jim smiled at the sound of Spock and Uhura’s voice. He had of course been glad for some time to spend with just Bones and Joanna but he had sorely missed his crew. 

“Have the side effects from Dr. McCoy’s antidote subsided?”

Jim frowned and shook his head slightly. “Some of the stuff has come and gone but my vision hasn’t really gotten better.” 

“I have to take him up to StarFleet Medical after we get done at the judge's office tomorrow to see what’s goin’ on in that hard head of his.” Bones chimed in from Jim’s side. He took a hold of Jim’s arm right at his elbow and started leading him towards the front door to their new lodgings. Spock and Uhura of course followed after them. 

“Have you formed a hypothesis as to why these side effects have yet to cease naturally?” 

Bones shook his head. “Not yet, I haven’t really had the time or equipment to check into it. That’s why I need to take him to Medical.” 

Spock nodded. “If it would not be considered an intrusion, I would like to accompany both you and Jim to StarFleet Medical.” 

“Of course, Spock! You don’t have to ask, it’s not like you haven’t looked into my brain a thousand times already.” Jim chuckled and tried to clap Spock on the shoulder but he was pretty sure he had actually just hit Spock on the stomach. Thankfully, Spock didn’t see the need in announcing the fact that Jim so clearly hit him in the stomach. 

“Miss Uhura! Mr. Spock!” Joanna greeted cheerfully when they finally stepped through the front door. She ran up and hugged Uhura, then she stepped back to give Spock an almost complete ta’al salute. Spock gave her a small ghost of a smile before returning the salute. “What are you guys doing here? Are you staying with us?” Joanna asked excitedly. 

“No, JoJo. But they are staying in the house across the street.” 

Joanna smiled and hugged Uhura again. She turned and grabbed onto Jim’s arm as well as taking ahold of Uhura’s arm. “Come explore the house with me!” Uhura and Jim just laughed and allowed her to pull them further into the house. 

Bones and Spock simply watched them leave. “You truly do not have any sort of hypothesis for why Jim’s symptoms have not abated?” Spock asked quietly without turning his gaze away from where Uhura, Jim and Joanna had disappeared to. 

Bones sighed and ran a hand over the stubble on his chin, he gestured for Spock to follow him back outside. “I have some suspicions but nothing is concrete enough for me to want to bring it to Jim’s attention and I can’t get anything concrete until I have access to more advanced imaging and testing equipment.” He said once the door had completely shut behind them. 

“You believe that some of his symptoms may be permanent?” Spock said with a small degree of shock coming through in his voice. 

“Like I said, I don’t have anything concrete yet, but the symptoms should had subsided already or at the very least new ones shouldn’t continue to appear this long after the medication was administered.” 

“May it have been a allergic reaction to the medication we fabricated to revert his brain chemistry to normal?” 

“I made sure that he wasn’t allergic to anything used to make it. I also made sure that none of the interactions between the drugs could have possibly caused a reaction.” Bones said tightly. “There’s only a few things I think could have happened. Either Jim was already having a low level reaction to the mix of chemicals that Andreas gave him and we didn’t realize it, thus changing the way the antidote would have reacted to his brain chemistry. Or Frank was pressuring Andreas into making the Change happen faster so in an attempt to do that Andreas gave him a higher dose than he stated in his research that he intended to.”

Spock contemplated Bones’ words for a minute. “Doctor, there is another possibility that I do not believe you have considered.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” 

“Dr. Andreas stated that he told Frank it would be approximately four to five hours before that changed became noticeable.”

“Okay...so what does that have to do with this?” 

“As I am certain you know, just because a medicine has worked long enough for changes to be seen it does not mean that the medication itself has run its full course or that it has affected everything it is designed to effect.” 

The second Bones’ brain registered what Spock was saying it was like a lightbulb had went off above his head. “You think that the stuff Andreas gave him hadn’t fully altered his brain chemistry, but instead it had only altered enough that Jim seemed childlike.”

“Precisely. If Jim’s brain chemistry hadn’t been altered to the extent that we had believed it had been and he hadn’t truly had as much of the chemical make up in his system as we had thought, then there is a possibility that we have simply given him the antidote in an incorrect dose.” 

Bones frowned, he scuffed his shoe against the concrete as he thought over the new information. He could vaguely hear Joanna’s squeals of joy and Jim and Uhura’s laughter from inside the house. “Okay, so that’s three possibilities on why Jim isn’t getting better. The problem is, I’m not sure how to combat any of those problems.” Bones was frustrated. He hadn’t felt this helpless since Jocelyn showed up at the hospital out of nowhere and handed him pre signed divorce papers. 

“I am sure that we will find a way once we have found out what is wrong, Leonard.”

* * *

Jim yawned and stretched his arms high above his head until one of his shoulders popped. He slumped back down onto the bed with a content groan. He hadn’t slept that well since he had been on the Enterprise before they stopped back at earth. Being up and about exploring the house with Joanna and Uhura had tired him out and the dinner with everyone after that had downright exhausted him.

Hell, he was pretty sure that he had fallen asleep in the car on the way back from the restaurant and he didn’t remember getting woken up at any point, which meant that either Spock or Bones had carried him into the house. Speaking of Bones, it was surprising that Bones hadn’t been up to the bedroom to wake him up yet. But then again he hadn’t been able to sleep through the whole night without waking up for the past couple of weeks so Bones had probably wanted him to sleep as much as he could. 

Jim stretched his legs out and quickly unwrapped the blankets from where they were trapped around his legs. He pushed himself up off the side of the bed and started trying to navigate his way down the hallway towards the stairs. He had kind of hoped that Pike had gotten them put up somewhere that _didn’t_ have a flight of stairs that he constantly would have to traverse. But of course that didn’t happen. 

“This would be so much easier if I could actually _see_ instead of just seeing blurry ass colors.” He grumbled to himself as he made his slow way down the hall leaning against the wall. At least he had a wall to lean on. Bones had been pretty pissed that one time he had taken a tumble down the stairs at his mother's guest house because he had been to stubborn to wait for Bones to come back up the stairs and help him. 

He stretched his hand out to feel the open air in front of him in an attempt to find where the banister for the stairs was. Whoever decided to paint the banister almost the same color as the walls was a fucking asshole and whoever decided to paint the fucking walls a shade of pale blueish grey was even more of an asshole because everything seemed like it was all one color. 

“Am I even at the fucking stairs?” He asked out loud to no one. Jim released a loud irritated sigh when of course no one answered him. “Okay, I can do this, I don’t need to call for Bones, I can find the fucking stairs on my own.” 

Jim pressed his whole side against the wall and slowly slid down until he was kneeling on the floor. From there he crawled forward on his hands and knees, constantly reached one hand or the other forwards so that he would feel something before he ran head first into it. He crawled for about a minute before the floor all of a sudden just dropped out from beneath his hand. 

“Ah ha!” Jim cheered quietly when he realized that he had finally found the stairs. 

He pulled his hand back and moved until he could position himself on his ass with his legs dangling down onto the first few steps. “Alright, I did this a few times as a kid. Just gonna scoot my dumb, blind ass down these stairs.” 

He placed both hand down onto the first steps and used the leverage to lower himself onto the first step. From there he slowly made his way down a few of the steps. 

“Jim?” 

Jim jolted in place, barely keeping himself from sliding all the way down the stairs as his eyes bounced upwards to see a muddled black figure at the bottom of the stairs. 

“Jim, may I inquire as to what you are doing?” 

Jim planted his feet on the stairs under him and turned a sheepish smile towards Spock. “I was coming downstairs?” He answered as more of a questions than a statement. When he was met with a few seconds of silence he stretched his hand out to grab ahold of the banister beside him to try and stand himself up. 

Of course nothing wanted to go his way and as he was moving to stand, his hand missed the bannister by literal centimeters. The edges of his fingertips merely skimmed the wooden bannister and the sudden lack of support had his mind reacting quicker than his body could keep up with. He ended up almost pinwheeling as his feet tried to steady him but ended up slipping off the edge of the narrow stairs. Before he knew it he was half stumbling, half falling down the stairs trying to right himself and then there was a pair of inhumanly hot hands gripping his upper arm and his waist. 

“Captain, perhaps you should refrain from attempting to navigate stairs on your own while your ability to see is impaired.” 

Oh, they were back to ‘Captain’ now instead of Jim. Spock was definitely pissed. “Well, Bones usually comes and wakes me up but he didn’t do that today and I was getting bored in the room so I decided to just go ahead and come down by myself.” He knew his voice sounded like a petulant child who had been caught out of bed after hours instead of the firm tone he had been going for. It didn’t help that his voice was also muffled by Spock’s chest. 

“Dr. McCoy asked me to wake you so that you could partake in breakfast before we leave for the Judge’s office.” Spock kept his hold firm on Jim’s shoulder as he pulled back and helped Jim straighten up on the stairs. He then kept his hand on Jim’s shoulder when he led him down the stairs and all the way into the kitchen. He even used the leverage he had on his shoulder to push him down into the chair at the kitchen table. 

There was a plate of food sat in front of him and Bones leaned over to kiss him on the lips when he and Joanna came to sit down at the table. “That was quick, I just sent Spock up to get you. Were you already awake?” 

“The Captain was already attempting to make his way down the stairs when I went to get him.” Spock answered tersely. 

Bones head snapped around to face Jim and Jim didn’t need to see clearly to know that he was irritated. “What?” He hissed. “Jim, I told you to let someone help you down the stairs! I don’t want you falling down the stairs more than you already have!” 

“Bones!” Jim whined. “I only fell down once and I figured that I could get down the stairs by myself.” Jim added testily as he moved his food around the plate. 

“He almost fell today as well.” 

“Jim!” 

Jim glared as best as he could at Spock. “I didn’t _actually_ fall, Bones.” 

Bones let out an aggravated huff and grabbed Jim’s arm. “It doesn’t matter if you almost fell or if you actually did fall, what matters is that you need to let other people help you.” 

Jim just waved away that line of conversation and tried to steer it towards what they were going to be doing today. He knew that they were taking Joanna to give her statement of events to the judge presiding over the case and then Bones was taking him and Spock to StarFleet medical to hopefully find a reason for why he isn’t getting any better. “So, what is on the agenda today?” 

Bones made a noise that Jim knew meant this line of conversation wasn’t going to be dropped completely. “We have to get Joanna up to the Judge in a hour and once we are all done there, Uhura is going to take Joanna out to some of the shop’s around town while we’re in Medical.” Bones told him. “Now, finish your breakfast so we can head over and meet Pike.” 

“Pike is going to be at the Judge’s office?” 

Bones nodded and pushed Jim’s plate closer to him. “He’s going to in the office with Joanna and the Judge. There’s a lawyer from StarFleet that’s going to be there as well as a lawyer who is supposedly representing the ‘defendants’.”

* * *

Bones ushered Jim and Joanna out of the car, for some reason the wind had decided to pick up horrendously while they were on the drive over here. Spock had declined to come into the Judge’s office with them and instead had decided to park the car for them and then go meet up with Uhura for lunch. 

The three of them made their way inside, they walked down a labyrinth of hallways until they finally found Pike waiting for them in a set of chairs outside of a monogrammed door. 

“There you three are.” Pike said when he saw the three of them come around the corner. “I was starting to think you all got lost.” 

He gave Joanna a pat on the head and a handshake to Leonard before he turned and full on hugged Jim. “How are you doing, son?” He asked quietly. 

“I’m doing better than I was before.” Jim leaned into the hug for a moment. He pulled back with a sigh. “I still can’t see great but Bones is working on fixing that.” 

Pike nodded and patted him on the shoulder. “Alright, Joanna. Are you ready?” 

Joanna bit her lip, she looked up at her father with a somewhat anxious look on her face. “I guess.” She answered quietly. 

“Don’t worry, the judge is a really nice guy. I’ve dealt with him a few times and he won’t be mean to you and he won’t let either of those lawyers bully you.” 

Leonard gave Joanna a gentle shove in Pike’s direction to get her moving. Pike placed a hand on her shoulder and started to lead her towards the double door in front of them. They had only taken a few steps when Joanna paused right outside the judge's office. She turned and sent a desperate look back towards Jim. 

Jim sighed softly and took a few steps towards her, kneeling down so that he was at eye level when he finally reached her. "What's wrong JoJo Bear?" He asked quietly, not wanting the two lawyers that had come to stand at the door waiting expectantly for Joanna, to hear whatever she was about to tell him. 

Joanna looked at him anxiously and quickly jumped forward the last step between them to hug him tight around his neck. "What If I say the wrong thing, Jim?" She whispered in his ear. 

He pulled back from the hug just enough to give her a warm smile. "All you have to do is tell the judge what happened to you, just like you told your Dad and Mr. Spock. You won't say the wrong thing if you tell the truth." 

"Can't you come in with me?" She pleaded and Jim could see the beginning of desperate tears starting to build up in her eyes. 

"I would if I could, JoJo. But then they might think I'm influencing you." He explained softly. "Besides, you're the strongest girl I know, you'll be fine." He gently petted the top of her hair before pressing a kiss to her brown curls. 

"Just know that when you are all done here, you and Uhura are going to go shopping. And once your dad and Spock are done messing around in my head we're all going to go to that fair that's happening in the Mission District." Jim waited until he saw her smile, then he started to stand up but not before leaning down to whisper in her ear. "And I managed to convince Spock to give you a piggyback ride the whole time we're there. I'm not sure he completely understands what a piggyback ride _is_ but he'll find out."

Joanna giggled at that and gave Jim one last hug around his waist. He watched as she took a deep breath in and turned to face the lawyers, he still had a smile on his face when she strode confidently into the judge's office. 

When Jim turned back around to sit with Bones to wait he could practically feel the worry resonating off of his boyfriend. “Don’t worry, Bones. She’ll do fine and besides, Pike is in there with her to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

* * *

“You ready for me to start running tests?” Bones asked with a chuckle as he placed several different implements on the tray beside the bio-bed that Jim was on. 

Jim squirmed around slightly on the bed. The room was cold, the same way almost every medbay he had ever been in was always cold, and he could feel goosebumps raising up on his skin. He truly detested medbay’s but the only way Bones could find out what was going on inside his head and fix him was to be in a medbay. 

“I guess so.” He said with a resigned sigh. “How long so you think this is going to take?” 

“It should take approximately 2.59 hours, Jim.” Spock answered as he strode into the room. He turned to Bones. “Our use of the imaging equipment has been approved, Bay 6 has been cleared for our use.” 

“Good.” Bones picked up his tri-corder and gave it a few waves across Jim’s body. It beeped a couple times and Bones frowned at what was on the screen. He changed a few setting on the tri-corder and then made a few more passes over Jim’s head and chest. This time he turned the tri-corder around so that Spock could read what was on the screen. 

When Spock couldn’t completely conceal a worried noise, that was when Jim started to get a bit worried about what was showing up on the tri-corder. “What’s wrong?”

But neither of them seemed to have heard his question, instead Spock grabbed the tri-corder and fiddled with the settings once again. The still beeping tri-corder was ran solely over his head this time. It let out a few more shrill beeps before Bones growled and grabbed it out of Spock’s hands. He shut the tri-corder off and instead picked up a small blood drawing syringe. 

Jim frowned when he realized that Bones had picked up a syringe. 

“It’s alright, Jim. I’m just going to take a little bit of blood.” Bones said in a soothing tone as he made his way back over to the bio-bed. 

Spock watched and waited until Bones was done drawing blood before he came over and set the bio-bed to hover mode so that they could move it. “I’ll escort Jim to bay six.” 

Bones distractedly waved him off as he set the container of blood into the analysis machine. “Yeah, I’ll meet the two of you over there in a minute or two once I make sure this is running the tests I want it to run.” 

Spock nodded in agreement, he stepped behind the bio-bed and started pushing it towards the exit. 

Jim leaned up onto his elbows and turned his head back towards Spock. “What was the tri-corder showing?”

“The tri-corder readings were inconclusive, that is why we are using a more in depth piece of imaging equipment.” 

Jim scowled. “You don’t run a tri-corder over someone three times with three different parameters and Bones doesn’t literally _growl_ unless he sees something he doesn’t like. Inconclusive tests aren’t something he would growl over, Spock.” Jim argued. “Just tell me, straight up, if something is wrong.” 

Spock hesitated and the silence was almost deafening to Jim. “Jim, as I have said, the results of the tri-corder readings were simply inconclusive. The blood tests as well as the results from the advanced imaging should give us more conclusive results.” 

He just rolled his eyes and laid back down on the bio-bed. Spock obviously wasn’t going to tell him what the hell was going on. If he was honest with himself it kind of stung to be left out of the loop on his own health. But there wasn’t much brooding he could do as Spock finally pushed him into the imaging bay and slid the bio-bed forward to hover in the middle of the cylinder shaped imaging equipment. 

He stared up at the center imaging panel directly above him with an irritated frown on his face. He pointedly ignored the sound of Spock moving around in the room and setting up the imaging machine. Jim heard Bones come into the room and while he couldn’t hear what they were saying exactly, because they were obviously trying to talk quietly, he could hear them moving around. 

“Alright, Jim. Spock and I are going to head into the other room. It’ll be a minute or two before the testing actually starts, try to keep as still as you can until the imaging stops.” Bones patted his ankle as he talked to him.

Jim just made a noncommittal noise and shifted a little bit to get himself comfortable.

* * *

Bones slumped down into the technicians chair. Spock was standing next to the chair and they were waiting for the machine to begin it's imaging process. 

“Doctor -”

“What the hell are we going to -” Both of them started to talk at the same time and each of them stopped as soon as they registered that the other had started to talk. Bones simply waved at Spock to go ahead and talk. 

“Do you have a plan, Leonard?” Spock asked softly, like he didn’t want Jim to hear him even though it was illogical to think that Jim’s human hearing could somehow penetrate the walls around them. 

“On how to tell Jim what the tri-corder found?” Bones ran a hand down over his face. “No, Spock. I don’t have a plan. I was sort of hoping that that huge brain of yours had already come up with something.”

Spock cleared his throat, the one and only sign of his anxiety, and shifted slightly on his feet next to Bones. “We will have to tell him something.” 

“You don’t think I know that?” Bones hissed as the first set of images appeared on the screen before him. He scooted his chair closer and studied the images intently. 

He didn’t exactly like what he found. 

“Damn it.” He turned to look at Spock who was also studying the images. “Do you see what I see?” 

Spock glanced from him to the images and back. “Assuming you also see the brain damage in the Occipital Lobe, the Hypothalamus and the Parietal Lobe. Then yes, I do in fact see what you see.” 

Bones nodded dejectedly. “All of which explains why he can’t see, why he keeps getting chills and why he’s still feeling joint and muscle pain despite everything being completely healed.” Bones spun his chair away from the screen. He rested his head in his hands and thought about how they could possibly fix this. If they even could fix this. “How did this happen?” 

Spock seemed entranced by the images in front of him. “It is possible that by giving him the wrong dosages of the antidote we engineered, we may have unintentionally caused his brain to be damaged.” When Spock looked over and saw the utterly defeated look on Bones’ face he quickly amended his statement. “It is also possible that the concoction Dr. Andreas created caused the damage to his brain before we had even gotten to him.”

“Either way something went horribly wrong.” Bones’ voice was muffled by his own hands but Spock still heard what he said. Spock reached over and set the computer in front of Bones to run another set of tests.

Bones looked up with a confused look on his face. “Jim will get anxious if we leave him in the imaging bay without it continuing to run tests.” Spock said simply, he pointedly ignored Bones’ raised eyebrow.

Bones sighed and leaned back in the chair with a look of intense concentration on his face. Spock pulled one of the other technicians chairs over to him and sat down to contemplate what they could do while the imaging tests were running. 

They sat in silence, no noise around them except for the soft beeps of the terminal alerting them to new images on the screen. Spock and Bones both orders several new imaging tests to try and give themselves more time to think. 

Thankfully Spock had thought to extend the supposed time of how long the testing was going to take when Jim had first asked, that way it didn’t look strange that they were doing so many tests and taking so long.

“We can probably lessen the effects of the damage in the Occipital lobe and the Parietal lobe. There’s experimental treatments for occipital lobe damage that has had promising results in nearly 80% of the conducted studies.” Bones started suddenly. “The pain from the Parietal lobe can be controlled with medication or we can try something like acupuncture or even nerve stimulation like they used to use for phantom pain from amputated limbs.” 

Spock contemplated the ideas shortly before agreeing with him. “What of the discrepancies cause by the damage to the hypothalamus?” 

Bones scowled and tried to think of what they could do about that. The only negative side effect from the hypothalamus damage was the inability to control his body temperature. As far as Leonard had seen the damage would sometimes cause his temperature to drop into what would be considered mild to moderate hypothermia. But there wasn’t much of anything regarding treatments or even studies of treatments for hypothalamus damage due to the relatively small chances of it actually occurring. 

Of course Leonard could look into it or have a trusted colleague do it for him, but that could take years if not possibly decades and it would do nothing to help Jim now. 

“Short term we could do the same thing we would for a species that has a low body temp and can’t survive in an environment with temperatures that are conductive to human life. I would have to requisition StarFleet to issue him thermal uniforms instead of the regulation uniforms and we’ll have to adjust his day to day off-duty attire.” Bones muttered, more to himself than to Spock, as his mind started spouting off all the options that he could possibly choose from. “He wouldn’t be able to go on certain away missions or attend treaty meetings on planets with colder atmospheres or at least not for an extended amount of time.”

Spock simply nodded his agreement with Leonard’s statements. “What plans would you have for the long term?”

Bones stood up, pacing around the small technician's office. He strode back and forth irritably as he tried to bring a plan together. “I have a few colleagues back Georgia who are neurologists that specialize in different types of brain damage and their treatments. Two of them have run several different trials on groundbreaking brain damaged treatments but none of them have been focused on hypothalamus injuries. I’m pretty sure I can get them to look into it, though it’ll probably be decades before anything truly helpful comes out of it.”

Spock opened his mouth clearly about to say something but before he could get the words out he was interrupted by Jim’s voice filtering into the room through the speakers that allowed them to hear into the other room. “Bones? Are you guys almost done?”

The two of them shared a concerned glance when they heard just how shaky Jim’s voice was.

Leonard reached over and hit the intercom switch in front of him. “We’re almost done, Darlin’.” He intended to ask Jim if he was okay but Jim beat him to the punch

“Can we uh -“ Jim pause and cleared his throat, trying to steady his voice. “Can we take a break?” The breath he drew in was sharp and tremulous enough that they could hear it hitch even over the staticky intercom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys! I hope you liked it and I hope to have the next chapter out in a little while.


	14. The end.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter. Angst, fluff and everything in between. Frank's trial finally commences while Jim and Bones navigate the rocky road that is Jim's extensive injures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so this is the last chapter for this fic. It's taken me quite a while both because of real life and because I tried as hard as I could to make the brain damage that I described as realistic as possible (Or as realistic as if can be after a magical concoction of who know what tries to turn you mentally back into a child.) 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. I tried not to bog it down with too much of the trial stuff and focused more on the recovery that Jim and everyone had to go through. And I know I repeateda lot of stuff a couple times (the description of Jim's medical injuries and their treatments mostly) but I felt like it would be realistic to have them discuss it several times since it is such a big and arduous process that they were planning on under taking. 
> 
> Read, Enjoy and comment!

“Can we uh -“ Jim paused and cleared his throat, trying to steady his voice. “Can we take a break?” The breath he drew in was sharp and tremulous enough that they could hear it hitch even over the staticky intercom.

Leonard and Spock shared a look as Bones quickly got up out of the technicians chair to rush into the room while Spock stayed behind to copy the data received from the scans as well as stop the testing so that Leonard could safely remove Jim from the machine. 

“Jim?” Leonard called softly as he stood at the base of the machine and waited for it to fully shut down. “You doin’ okay in there?” 

Jim’s breathing sounded incredibly loud and fast in the small space. He could see the short, quick breaths that Jim was taking as he looked down the cylinder of the imaging machine. “Darlin’, I need you to take some deep breaths, okay?” 

“I can...I can’t.” Jim wheezed, his breath only getting quicker the longer he was stuck. 

Bones slammed his hand repeatedly against the manual release button for the imaging bed, hoping that it might get the bed out faster than Spock shutting the machine down. He could see Jim starting to curl his legs up towards his chest and he could hear the sounds of Jim shifting against the straps holding his upper body against the bed. “C’mon, Jim. Just take a few breaths, in and out, in and out.” Bones encouraged gently. 

He reached in to run the back of his hand across Jim’s shin, hoping that some kind of physical contact might help ground him. “It’s okay, you’ll be out in a minute, the bed just takes a bit to respond to the release command.” 

Jim whimpered in response. 

Finally, the bed started moving outward and Leonard shifted to the side to so that it could make its way out. He kept a hand steady on Jim’s legs until one of his hands came into view, he grabbed a hold of it while his other started tracing Jim’s jaw. 

Jim squeezed his hand as hard as he could and started taking in deeper breaths now that he was finally out of the enclosed space. 

“You alright?” Bones asked. “What happened in there?”

“It’s...It’s stupid, Bones.” Jim said, his voice still holding on to a bit of the panicked tone it had held before as he tried to undo the straps and lift himself up off the bed, only to be pressed back down onto the bed while Bones turned to grab the nearby tri-corder that he had set over in the corner when he first brought Jim into the imaging room. 

“Don’t get up yet, Jim.” He said gruffly as he slowly waved the tri-corder back and forth over Jim’s body, only looking up from the scanner when the door swished open to reveal Spock. “Darlin’, you need to tell me what happened, did you have a panic attack or were you just getting claustrophobic?” 

Jim glanced nervously between Spock and Bones before letting his head hang slightly. “I, the only way I can describe it is that when I was in that machine all I could think about was how small it was.” He started, his eyes completely focused on the floor. “It reminded me of when I was in the trunk of Frank’s car when he was taking me to the quarry. I know it doesn’t make any sense.” Jim stammered out. 

Bones handed the tri-corder over to Spock so he could look at it and then he pulled Jim towards him so that he could hug him tight. “Jim. Anxiety, PTSD and other mental disorders don’t make sense. You never know what you may or may not have a reaction to but you can’t just brush that kind of stuff off.” His voice was muffled by Jim’s hair but he pulled back slightly to look Jim directly in the eyes. “Has this happened before or is this the first time.”

Jim just shrugged. 

“Jim.” 

He bit his lip and tried to turn his puppy dog eyes onto Spock, not that he was sure he was actually facing Spock, hoping that maybe Spock could get Bones to lay off him. But his pleading stare was met with silence. “It’s happened once or twice Bones, but that’s it!” 

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me _when_ it happened?” 

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, it lasts for a few minutes and then I’m fine.” 

Bones was rubbing the bridge of his nose in aggravation and after being quiet for a minute or two Bones turned to face Spock. “Can you take Jim back to the main medbay, I’m gonna reset the machine and make sure it's ready for the next tech who needs to use it.”

“Bones…” Jim started to talk but trailed off once Bones moved away to go back into the technicians room. 

When Spock moved to stand at the head of Jim’s bio-bed so that he could push him back into the medbay, Jim sighed and glanced backwards at him. “I messed up again, didn’t I?” 

Spock simply returned his glance. “I do not believe you have ‘messed up’, Jim.” The hallways passed slowly around them. “I believe Leonard simply wishes to help you and he can not do that if you do not tell him when something is wrong and you need help.” 

He exhaled slowly and slumped down onto the bio-bed. “I know...I just don’t want to bother him over such little things.” 

“These things aren’t little, Jim, not to anyone besides you.” 

Jim nodded solemnly. “It’ll take some time, Spock. I’m not used to relying on other people but I _am_ trying.”

* * *

Jim and Spock were sitting together in a contemplative silence as they waited for Leonard to join them in the medbay. Jim had tried to get Spock to tell him what had shown up on his scans but Spock had insisted that they wait for Leonard to arrive before they discussed what the two of them had found. 

He was kind of disheartened by that because he knew that if Spock felt the need to have Bones present instead of just announcing what was wrong in his usual nonchalant way, than that meant that the news wasn’t going to be anything even remotely good. But on the other hand if the news he was going to get was bad than he would much rather have his Bones there with him. 

It was still hard to keep himself from nagging Spock for even just a little tidbit of information, since he knew that SPock would eventually give in, but he somehow managed to control his tongue until Bones stepped through the door to medbay. He looked a little bit better than he had when Jim had told him about the other panic attacks he had dealt with, he looked less irritated and he slumped down onto the rolling stool that was meant for a doctor to use during an exam. 

Jim looked back and forth between Spock and Bones, he didn’t really like what he imagined to be on their faces; what little information he could garner from the atmosphere in room didn’t exactly make him feel like they were in a good mood. Bones must have seen his discomfort flash across his face because after a few seconds Bones sighed and rose from the stool to sit on the bio-bed next to Jim. 

“Jim.”

“Can you just skip to what you found on my scans?” Jim asked miserably, he already knew he wasn’t going to be happy about what was said, there was no need to drag out his misery with smalltalk. 

Bones exhaled slowly and grabbed Jim’s hand to rub it between his own hands. “We found a few things that aren’t....good, to say the least.” 

Jim just sat still, waiting silently for Bones to elaborate on what they had found. 

“We found some brain damage.” Bones said sadly. “There’s three key parts of your brain that are damaged and there's really only a few things we can do immediately to help control the symptoms of that damage.”

“So the damage isn’t repairable?” Jim whispered as his blurry vision drifted away from Bones and Spock. 

Bones took a deep breath and tried to compose himself as the raw devastation in his boyfriends voice brought tears to his eyes. “Two of the parts damaged are irreparable, yes, but both of those parts are the ones that have quite a bit of established research on methods we can use to manage the symptoms. The other part of your brain that was damaged was the Hypothalamus but because of the improbability of it getting damaged, there isn’t much in the way of research for short term fixes, or even treatments as a whole.”

Spock chose that moment to speak up. “However, the doctor and I have already sent word to several colleagues of ours to try and expedite research and possible ways to manage the loss of your temperature control.”

Bones nodded along and rubbed his hand up and down Jim’s arm. “Exactly, and I have a friend who is already working on something to help with your vision.”

“Okay.” 

Spock and Bones shared a look as Jim turned away from them dejectedly. He seemed to be taking the new information very well, perhaps a bit too well. 

“Captain, the brain damage will not impair your ability to maintain your Captain’s position aboard the Enterprise.” 

Jim simply nodded at that and continued to stare off into space. Bones was about to say something along the same lines, hoping to hit the point home but Jim beat him to it. 

With a deep breath Jim turned to them. “Can I have some time alone?” His voice was shaky with thinly veiled emotions while he actively avoided looking at the two of them. 

It broke Leonard’s heart to see Jim looking so hopeless and downtrodden. It was even worse to know that there wasn’t much medically he could do to help him. If there was one thing Leonard felt pride in it was his medical capabilities and his ability to use his medical prowess to keep Jim mostly healthy, most of the time. It was horrible to know that he was failing Jim. 

Leonard leaned over to kiss Jim on the forehead before standing up. “You’ll let me know when I can come back in, right?” Leonard asked desperately as he moved over towards the doors out of medbay. 

Jim just nodded but didn’t say anything as the two of them made their way past him. He barely made it until he heard the doors swish close behind them before he felt the first wave of tears start dripping down his cheeks. He slapped his hand over his mouth to try and muffle the sounds of his sobs as the fact that there wasn’t some magical fix for his problems actually hit him. 

He knew that Bones had said there were ways to manage his symptoms and eventually they might find ways to make those symptoms disappear altogether but his mind couldn’t move over the hurdle of him being brain damaged in the first place. 

~~~~~~~

Bones had to physically stop himself from storming back into the room when he first heard the muffled sob filter through from the other side of the door. It hurt to hear Jim breaking down and knowing that he couldn’t do anything to help him wasn’t making it better. In a split second of anger he turned and slammed his fist against the wall. 

“Doctor.”

Leonard pressed his forehead against the wall and growled to himself in frustration. He felt Spock’s hand on his shoulder, an obvious attempt to try and pull him away from his anger. He turned around to face Spock and was surprised at just how much emotion was present in the half-Vulcan’s eyes. 

“There is nothing we can do for him right now, Leonard. He has to come to terms with this on his own before he could possibly ask for our assistance.” Spock said. “As you say about other patients, you can’t truly help them unless they first accept that they need help.” 

Leonard groaned and rubbed his face aggressively. “I hate when people turn my words back on me, Spock. You know that.”

Spock’s head tilted to the side. “We have already discussed several options to combat his symptoms and once he allows us back into the medbay we will discuss them with him but we can only do what we can once he allows us to help him.” 

“I know, I know.” Leonard said throwing his hand up in the air in frustration and glaring at the medbay doors. “But knowing all that doesn’t make me feel any less horrible for not being able to fix Jim and knowing that I spout that stuff to patients doesn’t mean that I feel great about telling it to Jim.”

They stood waiting in front of the doors for almost fifteen minutes before Spock was able to convince Leonard to go into one of the nearby offices to sit down and discuss what exactly their plan for Jim’s treatment was.   
~~~~~~

Jim sniffled softly and rubbed his face against the rough pillow that was on the bio-bed. He felt _exhausted_ from the crying he had done and the emotional turmoil he was going through. 

He was normally pretty resilient when it came to emotional problems but with everything that went on with Frank and everything that has happened in the aftermath of that experience, it almost seemed like his emotional tolerance had completely gone out the window. It was like everything was slowly tumbling down around him and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t manage to get his feet underneath him before the next part of his world crumbled away. 

Now he just felt drained, he wanted Bones to come back just so he could bask in the reassuring presence of his boyfriend but he was too depleted to even drag himself off the bio-bed to go and call Bones back in. 

Jim laid on the bed, wallowing in his self pity for a few more minutes while he worked up the strength to move his arm and hit the button on the side of the bed that would call whoever was at the nurses station. He continued to lay curled up on his side until the doors to medbay swished open behind him and Bones’ thundering steps echoed in the open space. 

“Jim, you okay?” Bones asked frantically as one of his hands went to Jim’s hair to stroke his head while the other reached over to flick on the monitors for the bio-bed and grab his tri-corder. “Tell me what’s going on.” 

He leaned into the hand in his hair slightly and let his head loll against the pillow. “‘M fine, Bones. I’m jus’ tired.”

Bones ‘hmmed’ and scanned him for a few seconds. “Do you feel cold, dizzy? Do you feel any pain?” 

Jim curled up into himself a bit more. “ ‘m just cold.” 

He watched Bones place his tri-corder down and grab an extra blanket from a nearby bed to drape over top of him. Then that hand came back and started stroking his hair once again, he thought he heard Spock pull up another chair next to his bed but he was drifting off to sleep again.

* * *

“Well that could have gone better…” Leonard huffed as he pushed open the door so that Spock could carry Jim inside. 

They had both decided that discussing Jim’s treatment would be better served by letting him sleep off his exhaustion and then trying to bring up the discussion once he woke up. He had, of course, been dead asleep the whole car ride back from StarFleet medical and Leonard honestly didn’t think he would be waking up anytime in the next few hours. 

The alarm that had gone off in the nurse’s station had startled both him and Spock and within seconds they had both taken off towards the medbay. The pure exhaustion that was clear on Jim’s face when they got there had made Leonard’s heart sink to his stomach and for a split second he thought that maybe the stress from learning about the brain damage had inadvertently hurt him worse. 

He sighed as Spock took Jim upstairs to lay him down on their bed. Leonard turned to face the kitchen and set about making something for Spock and him to eat while Jim slept, the two of them hadn’t been able to fully flesh out what Jim’s treatments were going to entail. They had gone ahead and completed the requisition forms that would allow Jim to obtain thermal uniforms that would replace his old ones to deal with his faulty Hypothalamus. All they had left to do on that front was wait for the request to either be confirmed or denied. 

Both of them had also taken the time to put in a word to their colleagues in hopes of getting someone to start more in depth research into Hypothalamus damage. 

But that left them to deal with pinning down exactly what they were going to do about the pain caused by the Parietal Lobe and the vision impairments caused by the Occipital lobe damage. Leonard had of course already snowballed a few different routes they could take for the pain management. But he was bouncing back and forth as to whether he wanted to start with nerve stimulation or try something a bit less stressful, like acupuncture, especially given Jim’s general dislike of all things surgical or even things he just perceived as surgical and there was no doubt in Leonard’s mind that Jim would most likely be adverse to the idea of nerve stimulation. 

The pain medication Jim was on would work for the moment but he didn’t want to keep Jim on it long term and he definitely didn’t want to have to deal with StarFleet going after Jim for trying to captain a starship while on painkillers. 

“Leonard?” 

Leonard turned away from what he was doing at the stove to see that Spock had finally come downstairs once again. “You get him into bed alright?” 

Spock nodded and gestured towards the pan he was holding. “Do you require assistance?” 

“No.” He chuckled. “I’ve got the cooking almost done, it’ll only be another minute or two.” 

“Jim woke up for a moment but he was not truly lucid, I did not manage to do more than tell him where he was before he was asleep again.” 

Leonard frowned. “That makes sense, he hasn’t really been able to stay awake for all that long with the painkillers I have him on and the shock of the information we just gave him probably didn’t help the situation.” He dumped the food onto two separate plates and made his way over to where Spock was sitting at the dining table. 

He set the one plate down in front of Spock and sat down himself. His mind drifted back to the possible pain treatment options as he started eating. 

“Have you decided on an alternate treatment to the painkillers?”

“Not yet, I was just debating whether I should try using acupuncture or the nerve stimulation first.” Leonard waved his hand threw the air and took a bite of his food. “But there is a chance that neither will work, the acupuncture is usually for back, neck or joint pain and the nerve stimulation has mostly been used on phantom pain from amputated limbs. Neither have really be used for pain caused by Parietal Lobe damage.”

Spock seemed to accept that answer. “What would you intend to do if neither of those options work?” 

“I don’t know, Spock. I’m flying by the seat of my pants right now.” Spock gave him a confused look at the analogy. “I’ll have to figure things out as I come across them, this whole thing has been too unpredictable for me to actually get a handle on. Right now he’s staying on the painkillers and we’ll try the other two options before we go back aboard the Enterprise.” 

Leonard was about to continue on with what he had been planning to do for the vision problems Jim had but a noise at the top of the stairs drew his attention away from the conversation. There, at the top of the stairs, was Jim. He was wobbling back and forth on the top step and he was clearly determined to make his way downstairs. 

“Jim!” Leonard was out of his chair and up the stairs before he even realised he had left the chair. 

Jim gave him a disgruntled look but allowed him grab ahold of his arm and lead him down the stairs into the kitchen. “Hey Bones.”

“How many times have I told you not to try and navigate the stairs by yourself.” Leonard scolded as he ushered him into a chair then he thumped back down into his own chair.

“What were you guys talking about?” 

“We were discussing your possible treatment options.” Spock answered while Leonard went back to eating his food. 

“Okay, can you start over so I’m up to speed on what's going on?” Jim was speaking in a tone that Leonard knew was the tone he used when negotiating as Captain of the Enterprise. 

Clearly Jim was trying to put on a brave front and Leonard wasn’t sure whether he wanted to call Jim out on this brave front or if he wanted to just let it go as a coping method that Jim might need; he knew it was one of the few coping methods Jim had that wasn’t self destructive. 

He decided just to let it go. “I was thinking that we could try either acupuncture or nerve stimulation to help with the phantom pains that you have been dealing with.” 

“You think that’ll help?”

“They are options.” Leonard answered honestly. “I can’t be 100% percent sure they will help you completely or if they will even work at all. It’s only once we start trying them that we will actually see if they work.” 

Jim didn’t seem to be all that enthusiastic about that answer but then again it probably wasn’t what he wanted to hear. It hurt to be causing Jim any kind of upset but Leonard brushed that ache away and tried to focus on what little good he could actually bring to the conversation. “As for the vision problems, I have a colleague back in Georgia, his name is Carl Beaumont and he specializes in vision loss cause by brain injuries. He’s going to try and come up with something that’ll help with your vision.” 

Jim’s face brightened just a little bit. “So I’ll get my vision back?” 

“He said that chances are he won’t be able to restore it back to 100% of what is was before but it’ll be much better than what you are working with now.”

“But I’ll be able to see again.” Jim pressed on with an eager look on his face. He reached across the table, took ahold of Leonard’s hand and gave it a light squeeze. “I’ll be able to navigate the stairs by myself and walk around the house without worrying about ramming into things!” 

Jim was practically bouncing around in his seat as he went through a list of what he would be able to do by himself when he got some of his vision back. Leonard hadn’t even really thought about how much of Jim’s agency had been taken away from him by his vision loss. On a purely clinical note, he of course knew that there was a multitude of things that Jim couldn’t do while he was pretty much blind but he hadn’t truly thought about just how much that might weigh down a person as independent as Jim. 

It must have been killing him to suddenly have to rely on other people to help him do almost everything. And since everyone had been so sure at the beginning that his vision would come back naturally, no one had even thought to teach Jim some of the techniques that blind or visually impaired people use to help themselves go through daily life without too much assistance from other people. Looking back now Leonard definitely saw the oversight that had occurred by his own hand.

Jim settled down a bit once he went through his new list of things to look forward to and once he was settled again, the rest of his ailments came back to the forefront of his mind. “What are we going to do about me constantly being tired, a Captain can’t constantly be taking naps. I can’t be freezing all the time either!” 

“Leonard and I have already sent in the forms necessary for you to obtain thermal uniforms rather than the uniforms standard to human officers. As there are not many cases of Hypothalamus damage, there is not much we can do in an attempt to alleviate those symptoms, instead we’ll have to treat the actual symptoms rather than treat the damage causing them.” Spock chimed in as he got up to place his plate in the sink. Jim turned to face towards him and nodded to show him that he was paying attention to him. 

“So, I’ll still feel cold most of the time but the thermal gear will keep me from dropping into hypothermic ranges?” He asked. 

“It’ll keep you warmer than hypothermic but it probably won’t be a normal 98.6 degrees.”

Jim contemplated that for a few moments before nodding to himself. He seemed somewhat satisfying with everything except the plan they had for managing his pain, though that might be the fact that it is less of a plan and more of an aspiration. 

The three of them sat in a companionable silence while Leonard finished his food and moved to make Jim something for lunch. Spock stayed around for a little bit longer but eventually a comm call ended with him taking his leave.

* * *

Jim held tightly onto Bones’ hand as he was led out of the car and up a flight of stone steps. Bones had been completely silent about where they were going and what they were doing. Part of him had seriously contemplated the idea of Bones taking him to StarFleet medical and just dropping him off to be someone else's problem. Especially now that he had figured out that most of his problems either weren’t fixable or would take quite a while to fix. 

He had of course only contemplated the idea for a few seconds before he dismissed it. Bones may be a bit frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t immediately fix everything and make Jim all better but he wouldn’t ever just drop Jim off somewhere alone. He was to overprotective to do that. 

“So have you decided to tell me where we are going?” Jim asked cheekily when they walked through a door. He heard Bones talking to someone, a receptionist he assumed. He waited politely for them to finish talking before he poked Bones in the general vicinity of his stomach. 

“Nope, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out for yourself pretty quickly.” 

Jim rolled his eyes and let the sounds and smells of the building flow around him. Spock and Sulu had been helping him train his other senses to sort of fill in the blanks that his lack of sight was causing. It wasn’t fool proof by any means but it most certainly was better than stumbling around completely unaware of his surroundings or trying to scoot around on his ass everywhere like a dog.

Once he tuned out the sounds of Bones and the receptionist making idle chit chat he was able to focus on the other sounds that were farther away. He could hear some other voices faint and distant along with...barking? He tilted his head to the side, trying to somehow enhance his hearing. There was definitely barking somewhere in the building and now that he had identified the sounds his brain was starting to pick up on the smells around him. 

He, of course, could smell Bones’ cologne since they were sitting next to each other and he could smell what he assumed to be the receptionists perfume. But beyond that he could smell…

“Bones, are we at a dog shelter?” 

Bones squeezed his hand lightly. “Not quite. Uhura gave me a list of places that train and sell service dogs.” He said. “This place was the most highly recommended and had the most versatility in their dogs according to her.”

“So you got me a service dog?” Jim asked. He was mildly excited about having a service dog. It would help him, which he was happy about because it meant he wouldn’t need to rely on Bones so much but it would also be a pretty big signal to everyone around him that he wasn’t at his best and that always made him a bit self-conscious. On the other hand, however, he would be getting some of his freedom back as long as Bones truly trusted the dog to do its job. 

“I haven’t gotten you one, _yet_. We’re here to look through the dogs that they have up for sale. I already called ahead and told them what services the dog will need to provide and they said that they would get a few of the dogs that meet the criteria together so that you can look at ‘em.” 

As soon as Bones was finished a woman walked up to the two of them and told them that they had finished gathering the dogs. They wandered arm in arm down a hallway; the farther they got down the hallway the louder the sounds of the dogs were, the noises echoed all around them which only added to Jim’s mounting excitement. 

The lady stopped in front of a door and turned to face them. “We’ve gathered five different dogs that met the services you specified. I’ll be in the room with you in case you have any questions about the dogs.” With that she opened the door and stepped aside to let them walk in. 

Bones placed a hand on the small of his back to usher him forward. There were five blurs lined up in the center of the room, Bones led him over to the first blur in the line. The first dog was a tan and cream colored blur whose head nearly reached Jim’s waist even while he was kneeling. Jim reached out tentatively to place his hand on the dogs head. The dog shuffled in place slightly when his hand met its head. He let himself pet its head and attempted to mentally map out the dog. 

“Her name is Cassidy. She is a seeing eye dog, she was also trained as a therapy dog.” The woman said helpfully. 

Jim pet Cassidy once more before grabbing onto Bones’ shoulder to help himself stand up. Cassidy was nice but she seemed a touch skittish. Instead he turned towards the next dog in line, it was a small dog, even smaller than Joanna’s corgi. He hadn’t even placed his hand on the dogs head before it was wiggling around and moving forward to lick at his hand. He didn’t mind an energetic dog but he didn’t know whether it would be able to keep its focus solely on Jim and its job. 

He moved to the third one in line, though this time he didn’t kneel down. This dog was bigger than the last two with the top of its head coming up to his belly button. It was a solid black blur that was standing tall and still. The dog stayed in place and merely stared ahead calmly while Jim pet over its head and down its back. It didn’t even move a muscle when Jim ghosted his hand over its snout and across the sides. 

“What’s this one's name?” He asked while he continued petting the dog. 

“That is Brutus.” She answered softly. “He is a trained seeing eye dog, he was also trained as a therapy dog.” 

Jim smiled a little bit and fully sat down on the floor in front of Brutus. Brutus almost immediately moved to lay down beside Jim, he was close enough that Jim could continue to pet him without moving or straining himself but far enough away that he wasn’t crowded around Jim and sitting up against him. His head was resting lightly on his front paws but his eyes were glancing around the room steadily and his ears were perked up and twitching every so often whenever there was a noise. 

He had been petting Brutus for a few minutes when he turned to Bones who was still standing behind him. “I like him, I think he’s the one I want.”

“Are you sure?” Bones asked as he came over to pet Brutus on the head lightly a few times. “There’s still two other dogs for you to look over.” 

Jim just nodded and moved to stand back up while Brutus stood back up next to him. “He’s the one. He honestly kinda reminds me of Spock.” Jim admitted as Brutus sat at parade rest beside his leg. 

Bones snorted. “He does have Spock’s pointy ears.” 

The lady cleared her throat lightly from her position in the corner of the room. “I am not sure if it changes either of your opinions on him, but Brutus is also the only dog in the room that is trained as a guard dog.” 

“So he’s the best of all worlds then, huh?” Bones said softly. “Are you _sure_ he is the one you want.” 

Jim nodded again and petted Brutus’ head again. “Yeah.” Jim smiled up at Bones shyly and he felt Bones’ hand come up to rub across the back of his neck. 

“Alright, then he’s the one we’ll get.” Bones turned to face the woman. “Is it alright if I walk them to the waiting room and I’ll meet you at the reception desk?” 

“Of course, I’ll prepare the licensing papers and get all of the service dog documentation in order.”

Jim watched her walk over and take something out of one of the closets that lined the back wall of the room. When she walked back over to them there was a thick black vest in her hands that she strapped onto Brutus. She instructed Bones on how to properly take off and put on the vest and then she took Jim’s hand to lead it towards the top of the vest. His hand met a piece of semi-hard plastic and he quickly grabbed onto it. 

As soon as his grip was firm on the handle Brutus started slowly walking forward without anyone even instructing him to. He led Jim towards the door and sat until Bones opened the door for the two of them. 

Jim chuckled lightly as he was walked down the hall back to the lobby. Once they got to the chairs that lined the wall Brutus nudged him with his nose until he sat in one of the chairs. Then Brutus simply sat down to one side of Jim’s knees. As Bones walked over to the reception desk and set about paying for Brutus, Brutus slowly slid down until he was laying on the floor with his head still up in the air.

* * *

Leonard watched Jim with a frown as his boyfriend pulled out an outfit only to throw it back onto their bed and get another one, only to then throw _that _one on the bed and try to pick out another.__

Jim had been doing this for almost half and hour and at this point their bed was more clothing than it was anything else. Leonard honestly didn't think he had ever seen Jim so anxious about something. Not even right after the whole Nero incident when he realized he was going to have to accept his captain's stripes in front of the whole graduating class, or what was left of it at least. 

He shifted around in the chair but ultimately decided to let Jim work this out on his own. Until Jim turned and started grabbing _his_ clothing out of the bureau. "Jim." He called out. When the blonde man didn't respond and instead continued to scatter his clothing around on their bed Leonard sighed and heaved himself up out of the chair so that he could stand behind Jim and wrap him up in his arms. Jim struggled in his arms for a few seconds but eventually he stopped and sagged back against Bones' chest. "You need to take a break, Darlin'.”

"I need to find an outfit. We have to be at the courthouse in three hours." Jim flailed his arms a bit and went to turn back around and start rummaging through the clothing again but Bones kept his hold on his waist firm. 

"You're anxious. I haven't seen you this anxious the whole time I've known you." Leonard said softly into the back of Jim's neck. "There's still time, we can call Pike and see if you can just testify to the judge like Joanna did."

Jim turned in Bones' arms and rested his head against the curve of Leonard's shoulder. "Bones, I need to do this."

"You don't need to prove anything to anyone." Leonard said stubbornly. 

Jim bit his lip. “It - it.” He sighed and shrugged his way out of Bones’ arms. As he flopped down on the pile of clothes behind him, Brutus moved out from under the pile of clothes and rested his head on Jim’s thigh. “It’s not about proving anything to anyone, Bones.” Jim said as he absentmindedly reached out to pet his dogs head. “It’s about getting closure.” 

“How is sitting in a courtroom and listing off all the horrible things those men did to you in front of who knows how many people going to give you any kind of closure?” Bones asked heatedly. “If it does anything it might retraumatize you!” 

“I-I just...I just think hearing them _admit_ to what they did and the fact that it was wrong of them to do that might...help me, Bones.” He finished with a shuddery sigh and scrubbed the hand that wasn’t petting Brutus threw his hair and down his face. 

Bones groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Part of him, the doctor part with a degree in psychology, knew that some of what Jim was saying was true and that getting validated that it not only wasn’t his fault but wasn’t something that was normal would actually help Jim in the long run. But the part of him that was Jim’s boyfriend felt differently. All that part of him could see was how anxious and stressed the idea of going to court with his abusers was making Jim and that part of him didn’t like it one bit. 

“Bones, I understand that you are trying to make me feel better and all that but this something I have to do. I already know that what they did was wrong and all that but my big dumb brain needs to hear it from them.” Jim pleaded. 

“Fine.” Bones conceded, but even if he hadn’t it wasn’t like he could truly stop Jim from going to the trial barring actually locking him somewhere so he physically couldn’t go anywhere. “I’ll stop badgering you and trying to get you to reconsider going to the trial on one condition.” 

“What’s that?” 

“If at _any_ point you feel overwhelmed or like you can’t handle what's going on you will at least tell me or leave the courtroom.” 

Jim nodded slowly. “Ok. I can do that.” His head tilted slightly to the side. “Would you be willing to help me pick out an outfit? It’s kind hard to see what I’m working with when my vision is just one giant blur of colors.” 

“Well I doubt you want to wear any of the combos you tried to pick out already, cause if I’m being honest they are all atrocious.” 

“Even the ones from your closet?”

Bones snorted. “Especially the ones from my closet. I didn’t even know I owned a pastel pink shirt.”

* * *

Pike released a shaky exhale as he slumped back against the brick pillar behind him. He wasn't sure how the hell Jim and his crew were able to keep even a semblance of a straight face while they heard all of the horrid things those men did to Jim as a child. He was honestly glad that Leonard hadn't allowed Joanna to be present at the trial. 

He was doubly glad that he had been able to convince the judge that Joanna shouldn't be subjected to a trial and instead be allowed to have her testimony recorded in chambers and played for the jury to hear. How on earth had no one ever noticed what was being done to _a child_ was beyond him. Pike had thought it was hard to watch the videos of a young Jim being assaulted when they had found them in Locke's office but for some reason seeing Jim, as he was now, in the same room as his abusers was ten times worse. It was even more heartbreaking to see some of the emotions that had skittered across Jim's face when those men admitted to some of the things they did. 

It seemed like everyone in the little rural town of Riverside had somehow been in on Frank’s torture. From the local police to the pediatrician, all the way to the retired teacher from the elementary school. Obviously, it wasn’t true that the whole town was in on these heinous crimes but enough of them were that Pike felt it was okay to just condemn the whole town, if only in the court of his mind. 

Even if the whole town wasn’t in on it, it didn’t change the fact that not one person had noticed what was happening right under their noses and if they had noticed they certainly didn’t stop or report it. Though apparently some of the ‘innocent’ parties had seen it fit to come forward with some evidence about the past crimes done to Jim. Not that their testimonies now have helped as much as they would have back when the deeds were still happening. 

He straightened himself up a bit, though he did still have his back pressed against the pillar for support and steeled himself to be ready to go back into the courtroom. Jim might have his crew in there with him to help him deal with the trial but the more support and strength he could gather from the people around him, the better off he would be. He had just pushed off the pillar and started making his way back towards the entrance to the courtroom when a flash of yellow and red caught his eye. 

All it took was one quick glance to make him start moving forwards to intercept the blonde that was about to push her way into the courtroom. “Winona!” He called out, trying to get her attention before she got to the guards standing at the large set of double doors. 

The younger woman turned and glanced around the lobby clearly trying to figure out who had called her name.

Pike jogged up next to her and tried to put on a disarming smile. Considering the barely hidden scowl she gave him when she saw who had called her, it either wasn’t truly disarming or she was completely unhappy to see him.

“Winona, what are you doing here?” He asked as he sort of corralled her back away from the door a bit and towards a somewhat secluded spot in the lobby. 

Her scowl just deepened as she followed him. “I’m here to talk to James.” 

Pike cocked his head to the side. He had two choices. Either he could play dumb and act like he didn’t know why she would want to see her youngest son or he could just straight up ask her why she thought _now_ of all times was the best time to try and show Jim some support. “I didn’t realize that the defense had called you as a witness.” Better to play dumb, than to play sorry.

“They didn’t.” She answered tersely. She turned to walk back to the door but Pike grabbed ahold of her arm and turned her back towards him.

“Well, I know that StarFleet definitely didn’t call you as a witness and Jim didn’t tell me you have been trying to get in touch with him.” 

Winona yanked her arm out of his grip and _glared_ at him. If looks could kill, he most definitely would be dead right here and now. “I haven’t been in touch with him. Frank called me to tell me that he had been arrested by StarFleet, since StarFleet didn’t have the decency to alert me to the fact that they had arrested my husband.” She hissed. “I’m going to tell _James_ to stop this nonsense and drop whatever charges he’s levied against Frank.” 

Pike had to stop himself from blowing up at Winona, to think that she thought this trial was nothing more than _nonsense_ , it was utterly ridiculous. “One, Jim can’t drop any charges because he isn't the one who is bringing up charges against Frank, StarFleet is.” He started, unable to keep the irritation from leaking into his voice. “Two, do you even know what things Frank has been charged with?” 

“Of course I know what he has been charged with.” Winona sneered at him. “But James shouldn’t be doing this to me!” 

“Doing this to _you_?!” Pike parroted back at her incredulously. To say that he was shocked by her words was the understatement of the century. “What the hell do you mean he’s doing this to you?” 

Winona stalked towards him with a seething look on her face. “He’s dragging his father's name threw the mud! There was a hundred ways he could have dealt with this! Hell, there was a hundred ways he could have handled what Frank did with him , he didn’t have to destroy his whole family in the process!” She practically yelled in his face. 

Pike’s mouth fell open in complete shock. “He was a _child_ , Winona. There was no ‘what Frank did with him’, there is only what Frank did _to_ him. That man is a monster who practically destroyed Jim’s childhood and then he came back years later and tried to take the rest of his life from him!” Pike stood to his full height and sneered right back at her. “I don’t know how the hell you could have missed what Frank was doing to that boy.” 

“Do you think I’m blind, Christopher?” Winona asked with a dark chuckle. “I didn’t _miss_ what Frank was doing with James.” She let out a soft little huff, it could have been a laugh if it wasn’t so depreciating. “I just didn’t care.” 

“How? How could you not care about what was happening to your own _son_?” Pike was astonished. He had just thought that Winona was ignorant or so caught up in the loss of George that her whole world have funnelled down to just that loss and not onto her own children. The thought that Winona had _known_ what had been happening to Jim was nearly world shattering. 

“He’s the reason I lost George!” 

Pike blinked and just shook his head in disbelief. “George sacrificed his life to save 800 people, yourself and Jim included.” 

“Oh, please!” Winona said angrily. “We both know that George would have never stayed on that ship if it hadn’t been for Jim! If I hadn’t just given birth to that hellspawn he would have gotten on one of the shuttles the second Robau died.” 

“If George had gotten on any shuttle, whether it was with you or not, every single person that was on the Kelvin would have died, Winona. He stayed on the ship so that the shuttles would have a chance to escape. Otherwise the Narada would have blasted every single shuttle into nothing.” 

Winona had tears in her eyes when she looked up at Pike but he could still see the anger that was simmering behind the tears. “We would have at least died together.” Her voice was soft and it cracked near the end of her sentence. “But James had to come and destroy all that. George would be with me if it weren’t for him.” 

Pike was just shell shocked. He didn’t move, didn’t say anything. He just stood there staring at Winona in wonder. How anyone could hate a child, especially their own child, that much was beyond his wildest imagination. He was always constantly amazed at all of the things that Jim had to overcome in his short life but this took the cake. How the hell did Jim manage to bounce back and be the wonderful man he is today when his whole life has been a literal shit storm every time he’s turned around. 

Winona paused in front of him for a few seconds, catching her breath and most likely gathering her nerve to drag Jim out of the courtroom to talk to him. Not that she would be able to with all of his senior crew surrounding him, but she didn’t know that they were in there. She still thought Jim was the lonely little boy whose brother and mother abandoned him to a horrific step father. 

She sent one last glare towards Pike before turning and starting to stroll back towards the court doors. Pike watched her take a few steps and then made a decision that he had been tempted to make ever since he had first saw the videos of what Frank had been doing to Jim. 

He took three quick steps, just enough to get right behind Winona. Then he reached down and plucked a pair of energy cuffs from his belt. Without hesitating he grabbed Winona by the elbow and snapped the first cuff into place. 

“What the hell are you doing!” Winona screeched as he grabbed her other arm and quickly cuffed her hands behind her back. She bucked forward but Pike had a steel like grip around her forearms. 

Her yell had the guards looking over and heading towards the two of them but a quick nod and a wave from Pike had them stopping and heading back to their posts. “Something I should have done a long time ago, Winona.” He answered seriously. 

“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” He started to resight as he pushed them both forward, intent on getting her to the proper security personnel to escort her to StarFleet Headquarters.

Winona was having none of it, of course, she bucked and dug her feet into the ground trying to throw herself out of Pike’s hands but it did nothing. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Pike! You can’t arrest me for coming to my husbands trial!” 

Pike soldiered on, shoving her body towards the group of security officers that had originally escorted Frank and his accomplices into the court. “I’m not arresting you for coming to the trial. I’m arresting you as an accomplice to child abuse, aggravated sexual assault, child endangerment, the production and distribution of child pornography, kidnapping as well as multiple counts of rape in the first degree.” 

“I didn’t do any of those things!” 

“No, but you just admitted _to my face_ that you knew what Frank was doing to Jim, from the very start, and you simply ignored it because you didn’t care for Jim. That means you are an accomplice because you did not attempt to stop Frank or report the abuse that your child was suffering.” Pike made sure to explain what was going on loud enough that the security force in front of them could clearly hear what was going on. And since they were the security team that had escorted Frank here, they already knew who and what he was talking about. “I need at least three of you to escort Mrs. Kirk to StarFleet HeadQuarters. I will comm ahead and let Admiral Barnett know you are coming and what is going on.” 

The Lieutenant-Commander in charge gave him a sharp nod and a salute before grabbing a hold of Winona and forcibly dragging her out of the court. 

Pike slumped against the wall behind him with a sigh. As if the trial wasn’t bad enough to deal with, now he had to deal with this shit. But at least he had been able to keep her from going in there and disrupting the trial or worse, going in there and causing Jim trouble. After letting himself collect his thoughts for a few seconds he kicked off the wall and yanked his comm unit off his belt. 

He dialed in Barnett’s comm code and readied himself to explain why he arrested a StarFleet Commander.

* * *

Jim bit his lip and turned to face the courtroom doors for what had to be the twelfth time since Pike had gotten up and walked out of them. Pike had leaned over and told Jim that he was leaving the courtroom for a bit but that had to have been nearly 45 minutes to an hour ago and Jim couldn’t think of anything that would keep Pike outside for that long. 

It wasn’t like Jim _needed_ Pike to be in the court with him, since he already had literally his whole senior crew crammed into the bench around him giving him near constant support. But there was a certain...safety that Jim felt in these kinds of situations when he had Pike around him. He wasn’t planning to leap up and attack anyone or cause a scene but he always felt better whenever Pike was around in legality situations. 

“Are you alright, Jim?” Spock asked discreetly from his position directly to the left of Jim. 

Jim glanced back another time, only to see the doors still closed and no sign of Pike. “Pike’s been gone a long time.” He said softly. 

Spock sent a surreptitious glimpse over to where Pike had been sitting before he left. The only one on that side of Jim, now that Pike was gone, was Bones who seemed to be incredibly intent on memorizing every single thing that Andreas was saying as he was being cross examined by the lawyers. “I am sure that he is alright. It is logical to assume that he may have gotten seen by someone he knew and is conversing with them.” 

“Yeah, but he said that he would be right back.” 

“Do you wish for me to attempt to find him?” Spock turned to face Jim so that he could lower his voice. “I am sure he would not mind being drawn out of a conversations with a colleague if he believed that you need him in here instead.” Jim could never understand how he could sometimes forget how protective his crew had gotten over him and his well being since Frank forced himself back into his life. Bones and Spock in particular were probably the worst about their protective coddling. 

Jim just shook his head. Sure, if he was being honest with himself, it made him a bit anxious for Pike to be out of the room. But he shouldn’t drag Pike back in here if he was out trying to talk to someone. “I don’t want you to drag him back in here for me.” Jim grasped Bones’ arm just a little bit tighter. 

Suddenly there was a loud shrill yell from outside the courtroom doors. Everyone in the courtroom, even the Judge and the lawyers, turned to stare out the doors. The security personnel who had been placed around the room were all looking at each other and a few of them looked about ready to go see what was going on as a woman's voice filtered in through the doors. The woman’s voice, loud as it was, wasn’t distinct enough for anyone inside to accurately be able to tell what she was yelling. 

Spock started to get up, presumably to go help sort out whatever the disturbance was but before he could get around the bench, the doors to the courtroom opened to reveal Pike. Pike strode confidently into the courtroom, though his face did show some slight irritation. He stopped when he got to the bench that Bones, Jim and Spock were on and sat down at the end of it. He reached over to give Jim’s arm a squeeze and then settled into the seat appearing almost completely unruffled by whatever had happened outside. 

“Admiral?” 

Pike looked over. “Yes, Spock?”

“May I inquire as to what was going on outside?” 

Pike attempted to shrug nonchalantly but it was foiled when he sent a somewhat worried surreptitious glance towards Jim. Jim of course couldn’t see the worry in his eyes but both Bones and Spock could see it clear as day. “Nothing important really, a woman that I happened to know decided to cause a scene. The security personnel that were stationed outside took care of it though, so there's nothing to worry about.” 

Spock simply nodded at the explanation and sat back down on the other side of Jim. 

Jim however wasn’t so quick to let his explanation go. “What did the woman want? Why’d she make a scene here of all places?” 

“She’s not…” Pike paused as he tried to think of the right word to describe what he was thinking. “She’s not exactly well. Emotionally.” 

“Oh.” That was enough to get Jim to drop the conversation. He didn’t need to be digging into someone’s business if they weren’t all there. “So what did you need to leave for?” 

“Admiral Barnett needed to talk to me and I didn’t see the need to interrupt the trial by talking to him in the middle of the court.” Pike turned his attention partially back to the trial, which had started up again around them, but he still kept a bit of his attention on Jim. “Are you doing okay? Do you need to take a break?” He asked seriously as he leaned forward to look around Bones. 

Bones, at the mention of Jim possibly not being okay, snapped his gaze away from the proceedings in front of him and turned his hawk like gaze on Jim. “Do you need a break, Darlin’?” He asked as well. He lifted the arm that Jim wasn’t holding onto and rested his hand on Jim’s shoulder. “We can go outside for a bit if you want. You don’t really need to be in the courtroom until they call you to the witness stand and that might not even be today.” 

Jim waved off Bones’ concern and did his best to glare at Pike. Pike just smiled back knowing that he had successfully curtailed Jim’s quest for knowledge by turning his concerned boyfriend onto him. Pike turned his attention back to Andreas’ cross examination while chuckling in his mind when Bones’ started questioning Jim. 

The cross examination went well or as well as it could go considering Andreas was literally just admitting to all of the horrible things he had done to Jim in the past with or without Frank and admitting to the things he had done to Jim during his kidnapping. The explanation of the chemicals he had used to attempt to alter Jim’s brain chemistry was a long, drawn out and confusing tale but it seemed like both the judge and the jury eventually caught onto how heinous and devastating that concoction could have been had it not been counteracted when it was. 

Finally after nearly four and a half hours of cross examinations by the two lawyers, the judge decided to declare the court adjourned for the day and that they would be reconvening in two days at which point other witnesses would be called to the stand to testify. 

Jim was slumped back slightly in his seat, four and a half hours didn’t seem like a long time but he was still getting worn out incredibly easy even though the steady decrease in pain medication that he was on was helping him to stay awake for longer periods of time. He was practically asleep when Bones nudged him in the side with his elbow to get him awake and alert again. He jolted in place slightly and looked around to see that the blurs around him were all either standing or preparing to stand. Jim shuffled his feet forward a little to get Brutus to move from where he had laid down across Jim’s feet. 

Once the dog had gotten up and started moving towards the end of the bench, Jim allowed Bones to take his arm and help him stand up. His legs were slightly shaky from sitting so still for so long. He leaned against Bones most of the way until they had gotten out from between the benches. Then he just leaned back against the edge of the bench while they waited for everyone in front of them to filter out of the courtroom. 

Brutus leaned himself against Jim’s legs and kept a firm gaze on the people passing by Jim. The German Shepherd was staring intently at every single person who so much as looked at Jim. Jim leaned down and gave the dog a few pets on the head. 

“You look like you’re about to fall over, Darlin’.” 

Jim yawned and swayed slightly where he stood. “I feel like ‘m about to fall over.” 

Bones smirked and pulled Jim away from the bench so that he could wrap his arms around his shoulders and start leading him down the aisle and out of the courtroom. The rest of the crew sort of filtered their way out after the two of them. 

It wasn’t until they had gotten out into the lobby and were about to make their way out to their cars that Pike tapped on Bones’ shoulder and motioned him to follow him to another part of the lobby. Bones glanced down at Jim, who was basically asleep on his shoulder, and gently passed him over to Spock with the express instruction to get him into the car and let him fall asleep. 

“Yes, Admiral?” Bones asked once they had moved away to find a less crowded spot in the lobby. 

Pike took a second to watch Spock help Jim out of the lobby and out to the car before he turned to face Bones. “I wanted to know if Jim or you have any plans for tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow evening.” 

“We don’t have any plans yet. I wanted to keep the schedule open since we didn’t know if the judge would be reconvening tomorrow or the day after.” 

Pike nodded. “I wanted to take Jim either to lunch or to dinner to discuss some things. If you want to come along you are more than welcome too.” Pike paused so that he could choose his next words carefully. “I know you probably want to spend as much time as you can with your daughter before your shore leave is over and the things I intend to discuss with Jim might not be the most appropriate for young ears.” 

“The others have agreed to sort of round robin her between them each of the days we have to be in the courtroom so that she isn’t subjected to the trial. Sulu, Ben and Demora are planning to take her out tomorrow and Wednesday so even if I come she won’t be brought along.” 

“Good. I’m also not completely sure how Jim will react to the information we will be discussing.” 

Bones frowned and leaned a little bit closer to Pike. “Is it about the case? Is something wrong?” 

“No.” Pike assured him with a quick wave of his hand. “Nothing’s wrong per say. There’s just been some new discoveries in the case and I don’t really want him to have to find out sitting in the courtroom, especially when there is a good chance that the prosecution is going to call Jim in as one of the witnesses on the stand on Wednesday.” 

“Alright, I’ll let him know that you want to talk to him. You’ll probably be better off taking him to lunch because he is usually pretty exhausted around dinner time. I’ve started giving him an alternaternative pain medication that’ll be longer lasting overall but it takes a bit of time to work and it drains him of his energy.” 

“I’ll plan to pick him up around 1230 hours, then. Have a good rest of your day, Leonard”

“You too, Pike.”

* * *

“Did Pike tell you what he wanted to talk about?” 

“For the third time, no, Jim. He just said he would be here to pick you up at 1230 hours to take you out to lunch to discuss some things.” Bones sighed as Jim glared at him from his chair. “Look, he told me that there was some new stuff discovered pertaining to the case, that’s all. He didn’t tell me what it was, he just said that it wasn’t detrimental to the case.”

“Are you sure that’s all he said?”

Bones looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Jim sighed and slumped just a bit further down into the chair. 

“Jim, he’ll be here in the next ten minutes or so, how about you focus on getting ready and not obsessing over what he might tell you.” Bones got up off the couch and held his hands out for Jim to take. He helped pull Jim up out of the chair and pushed him towards the stairs. 

Brutus got up off the floor by the chair and walked over to Jim so that he could rest his hand on the handle of his vest. The dog nudged Jim with its nose until he started moving in the direction of the stairs. 

“See even Brutus agrees with me!” Bones chuckled as the dog led Jim up the stairs and into the room that served as their bedroom. “Alright what do you want to wear?” 

“Can’t I just wear what I’m already wearing?” 

Bones rolled his eyes and rummaged through the civilian clothes they had brought along with them. “No. You’ve been wearing that all day and you’re going to be going out to lunch.” 

Jim bounced slightly on the bed before letting himself fall back onto the mattress with a thump. He patted the bed beside him until Brutus jumped up onto the bed and laid along his side. He stroked the dog's head as he listened to Bones muttering to himself under his breath. “The things I do for this man.” He said dramatically with a put upon sigh. He was about to start talking to Brutus but a shirt hit him square in the face as soon as he opened his mouth.

“Put that on you brat!” 

Jim sat up and stuck his tongue out at Bones’ back. “I’m not a brat, old man.” He shrugged off the shirt he was wearing and threw it in Bones’ general direction with a snicker. 

“You keep up that act and I might just put you over my knee.” Bones joked as he set a pair of pants on the bed next to Jim. 

“You can try.” Jim’s voice was muffled by the shirt he was pulling but when his head reappeared his eyebrows were already waggling suggestively. 

Bones put his hand on Jim’s forehead and shoved him backwards onto the bed. “Maybe later.” He growled. 

Jim had just started to pull his shoes back on after he changed his pants when the doorbell rang downstairs. 

“Looks like Pike’s here.” Bones said. He headed off towards the door. “I’ll go let him in, you come down when you’re done getting changed.” 

Jim nodded and stuffed his foot into one of his boots. He had to struggle to get the laces done up right and chances are they were probably a real mess but at least they were tied and seemed to be staying in place pretty well. He stood up and wiggled his feet around a bit to make sure that the laces wouldn’t come undone when he was walking around, once he was sure they weren’t going to trip him up he grabbed onto the handle on Brutus’ vest and let the dog lead him down the stairs. 

He could hear the sounds of Bones and Pike talking in the livingroom and as he wandered in he smiled at the blur he knew to be Pike. “Chris!” 

“Jim.” Pike answered with a smile. He gave Jim a hug when he got close and gave Brutus a few pets on the head. “You look better than you did yesterday.”

“What’s wrong with how I looked yesterday? Did Bones pick out a horrible outfit?” Jim said with a playful frown. “You should be glad you decided to take me out to lunch and not breakfast because I actually feel hungry right now.” 

“Good, we’ll probably be at the restaurant for a little while since we have a few things to discuss.” Pike took a hold of Jim’s arm and started to steer him towards the front door. “Are you going to be coming with us, Leonard?” 

Bones turned his head and gave Jim an inquisitive look and it honestly took him a few seconds to remember that Jim couldn’t see what his facial expression was. He cleared his throat. “I’ll go if Jim wants me to but if you think he’d be better off hearing whatever it is on his own then I’ll stay here.” 

Pike looked back and forth between the two of them. “You’d probably be better off coming with us.” 

Bones nodded with a grim look on his face and motioned for the two of them to head out the door while he followed them, he made sure to lock the door behind them. Bones helped Jim into the back seat of the hover car while Pike helped Brutus jump in the other door. Once the two of them were settled Pike hopped in the driver's seat and started up the car. 

“Is the place you’re taking us dog friendly?” Jim asked curiously from the back seat. 

Pike paused, he tried to think about whether or not the place was dog friendly but Bones answered the question before he was able to get his thoughts completely together. “It doesn’t matter if the place is dog friendly or not, Darlin’.” Bones said. “Brutus is a service dog not a therapy or emotional support dog which means that any establishment that allows people inside has to allow a service dog in.” 

Jim nodded at that explanation and leaned back in his seat to relax for the duration of the car ride to the restaurant. Pike and Bones both seemed to notice him drifting off into his own world and politely kept the conversation between themselves. 

It wasn’t until they pulled up in front of the restaurant that either of them really turned their attentions back to him, even then it was mostly to let him know that they had arrived and to help him out of the backseat of the car. Brutus made his own way out of the car and went to stand guard by Jim’s feet. 

The hostess at the front of the restaurant seemed a bit peeved by Brutus’ presence but Pike easily dissuaded her by throwing his rank around until a waiter came by to escort them to their reserved table. The waiter either didn’t notice or didn’t care about Brutus and simply led them to their table and handed them a few menus. It was entirely possible that the man was just to busy half-flirting with Jim to notice the dog beside his leg

“So what is bad enough that you feel the need to ply me with food before you tell me.” Jim was aiming for his voice to sound nonchalant and winced to himself when it didn’t come out that way and the fact that he was pretending to intently study a menu that both his companions _knew_ he wasn’t able to read probably didn’t help either. 

Pike sighed and waited for the waiter to finish taking their orders before turning to face Jim. “It involves the woman that caused a scene outside of the courtroom.” 

“The lady that you said was emotionally unwell.” 

“Yes.”

Jim frowned. “What does she has to do with the trial? I thought you said she was a friend of yours.” 

“I wouldn’t say she's a _friend_ of mine, rather that she used to be a friend.” When Jim gave him an unimpressed look he decided just to skip to the chase. “Either way, regardless of who she is to me, she is now going to be part of the trial.” 

Bones chose that moment to interject. “Wait, why is she part of the trial now?” 

“The scene she caused outside of the courtroom brought to light some involvement in what has happened to Jim.”

“This lady helped Frank kidnap me?” Jim asked incredulously, for a second he thought back to any females he might have had contact with during or leading up to his kidnapping but besides Uhura and a few other officers aboard the Enterprise and at Starfleet headquarters, he couldn’t think of any. 

Pike shook his head. “No, she...she facilitated some of the instances of abuse throughout your childhood.” 

That sent a jolt threw Jim’s brain. There was only one person who might have been involved with his childhood torture who would have also had cause to show up at court and just happened to be a woman. “It was my mother, wasn’t it?” Jim asked quietly, his head was folded down towards the table and Bones and Pike could see that his mind was going into overdrive but his face looked completely resigned. “She was the one outside the courtroom.” 

Pike exhaled slowly and kept his eyes firmly locked onto Jim’s face. “Jim.” 

“Frank alluded as much when he had me held captive, but even before that...I didn’t want to believe that she hated me that much but I think part of me knew that she saw what was going on and didn’t do anything to stop it.” 

“Darlin’.” Bones started sympathetically as he reached over to rub and hand up and down Jim’s shoulders. 

Jim slumped a bit further down in his chair but allowed Bones to continue attempting to soothe his frazzled nerves. His mind felt like it was running a million miles a minute, not that that was a particularly strange occurrence but this time the subject of the thoughts was less than ideal for his mind to be focusing on. 

Bones turned himself to face Pike with a stern frown marring his features. “So, why is she part of the trial now? Why wasn’t she part of it earlier?” 

“We didn’t know that she would even be implicated in a part of this until yesterday during the trial, hell the admiralty didn't even suspect her but she gave some pretty damning evidence against herself.” Bones gave him a questioning look that obviously was asking what evidence she could have given Pike that would have incriminated _herself_. “She was planning to go into the courtroom and _persuade_ Jim to drop the charges against Frank. I told her that not only was Jim not the one who was pressing charge but the significance of the charges themselves did not just lend themselves to being spontaneously dropped even if the victim decided not to testify.” 

“I had hoped that once she heard the severity and nature of the charges leveled against him that she might actually feel remorse for what she had allowed to happen to her son but she told me point blank to my face that she already knew what Frank had been doing to Jim.” Pike said with a disgusted look on his face, he had tried to keep his anger off his face before but now that he remembered that Jim couldn’t see his expression he felt okay with letting his emotions play out of his face as long as they didn’t come threw in his voice. 

Jim’s head was bowed nearly to the table and Bones could feel him trembling underneath his hand as Pike continued. 

“That was what the commotion outside was. As soon as she told me she knew what had happened I arrested her as an accessory to almost all of the crimes that Frank was charged with. She’ll be in the court tomorrow along with the other defendants.”

“So I’ll have to see her in court tomorrow. Especially if they call me testify.” 

“I was hoping to slow down her booking and arraignment so that you would be able to testify before she was among the defendants.” Pike stopped talking as their waiter came by and dropped their food off around the table. The waiter politely asked if they needed anything else, though his focus was primarily on Jim, it was obvious that he was trying his best flirt with him but Jim wasn’t looking up from where he was playing with his pasta. 

When both Bones and Pike answered negatively and Jim didn’t seem like he was going to return his flirting the waiter simply told them to enjoy their meals and walked away to tend to his other tables. 

“Anyway I thought that Barnett could stall her actual presence in the court until Jim was done testifying and then he could just spend the rest of the trial recuperating in San Fran but the judge decided to postpone the next set of witness testimonies until all those who were charged were present.” 

“At least you tried.” Jim murmured solemnly, he was pushing his pasta around his plate and staring blankly ahead of himself. “I’ll just have to ignore her while I’m testifying. I’ve ignored her most of my life, I think I can ignore her for a few hours.” 

Before either Bones or Pike could say anything Jim was standing up and moving around the edge of the table. 

“Jim-” Bones started as he stood up to grab Jim’s shoulder. 

Jim shrugged his hand off and grabbed onto Brutus’ vest strap. “I’m just going to the bathroom for a minute or two, Bones.” 

Brutus led Jim away from the table and Bones moved to slump back into his seat. 

“That went quite a bit better than I expected it to.” Pike said softly as he watched Jim walk off to the other side of the restaurant. 

Bones frowned. “What did you expect him to do.” 

“I don’t really know what I thought was going to happen.” He answered honestly. “But then again, I didn’t know that he already had an inkling and that Frank had already mentioned it to him.” 

`~~~~

Jim sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face. He could feel Brutus leaning against his leg as he leaned over to splash his face with some cold water from the sink. He hadn’t meant to be so callous to Bones but he really just need a minute to himself to try and work through everything that was going on in his mind. 

Between finally having confirmation that his mother actually knew what was happening to him during his childhood and trying to work through his injuries, everything seemed to be completely overwhelming him. He probably could have stayed out at the table with Bones and Pike but their little booth almost seemed like it was closing in around him and he had suddenly felt the horrible need to get out of there for at the very least a few minutes. 

He heard the bathroom door open up behind him and turned around to tell Bones that he was about to head back out to the table; that he just simply needed a minute or two to collect his thoughts. But when he turned around he quickly realized that the man standing behind him was not, in fact, his boyfriend. 

“Um, Hi?” Jim said cautiously when the guy next to him made no move to either go into one of the stalls or go over towards the other sinks. 

The blur shifted slightly from side to side before taking a hesitant step towards Jim. “Are you, uh, are you Jimmy Kirk?” The guy asked.

It took the guy moving a bit closer and him talking for Jim to realize that it was actually the waiter that had been servicing their table that was addressing him. 

“Yeah, that’s me. Do I know you?” 

The guy took another step forward and Jim could vaguely see his arm moving around and pointing towards him. He thought for a second that the guy wanted an autograph or something like that but then he heard the telltale _swish_ of a phaser switching from either stun to kill or kill to stun. 

Jim turned fully to face him and put his hands up into the air. “Listen, buddy, I don’t know why you are here or why you have a phaser pointed at me but you don’t need to shoot me.” He said softly. He was trying to keep his voice steady but he could hear it trembling slightly. “If you just walk away now I won’t say anything to anyone and we can both just go our separate ways and no one will hear a word about this.”

The man took another step closer and Jim could see the dull, blurry, blue glow on the side of the phazer that signalled it was set to stun. “I’m sorry but I can’t do that. I was told to get you at any cost, so I’m going to need you to come with me.” 

“You were waiting on my table, you already know that I came in with two people, they’ll definitely notice you dragging me out of the restaurant.” 

He was little more that six steps away when he stopped again but kept his phaser pointed directly at Jim’s chest. “There’s an employee’s exit right down the end of this hall, your friends won’t see you walk out the back door.” 

“Why? Why kidnap me?” 

He took another few steps and reached out to grab a hold of Jim’s arm. “It’s none of your damn business why.” 

The second his hand grasped Jim’s arm, Jim was suddenly reminded of the fact that Brutus was in the bathroom with them as he felt Brutus’ fur brush past his leg as the German Shepherd lunged forward from his side and latched onto to the waiter's arm. The guy _screamed_ as Brutus bit down into his arm and refused to let go. However, the jerking motion of Brutus slamming into him and biting down on his arm made the waiter reflectively clench his fingers down on the trigger and shoot off a stun charge. 

Of course, since the universe fucking hated James T. Kirk the stun charge slammed into the meat of his shoulder like a freight train had rammed into him. He instantly sunk to the floor and didn’t even have the time to groan from the pain before his world faded out around him to the sounds of tearing cloth and a screaming man. 

~~~~ 

 

Bones was playing around with his food, much like Jim had been doing before he went to the bathroom. Jim had only been in there for a couple of minutes but Bones had already contemplated going in after him several times and he probably would have if it weren’t for Pike stopping him when he went to stand up and telling him to give Jim some space. 

He was antsy about leaving Jim alone for to long, partially because of how he had looked when he left and just because he knew he wasn’t in completely good health. But Pike had already stopped him three times from going after him so he was forced to stay put. 

“He’ll be fine, Leonard. He probably just needs a minute or two to get his thoughts together.” Pike glanced back towards where the bathroom was before turning his gaze back to Bones. “He’s been given a lot to deal with and that’s even on top of the injuries he’s still trying to recover from.” 

Bones glared at him. “I know he’s still dealing with his injuries that’s why I would like to go after him and make sure that he’s doin’ okay.” 

“How are his injuries coming along? Have you found any way to improve his health?” Pike asked like Bones hadn’t even said anything.

“A friend of mine is working on putting together something that will help enhance his vision a bit.” Bones huffed as he spooned some of his mashed potatoes into his mouth. “He’ll have to have a minor surgery to get the vision enhancer implanted into his eyes but it will almost be like permanently having contacts in. He won’t have his normal vision and it will still more than likely be a bit blurry but it should be significantly better compared to what he’s dealing with right now.” 

Pike nodded at that explanation, since he wasn’t well versed in what medical procedures needed to be done he could only take Leonard’s words at face value and hope he understood at least the bare bones of what was going on. “So, that’ll take care of the vision problems, but what about everything else?” 

“He’ll need to wear a pair of what will essentially be glasses that’ll connect to the implants to help give him some depth perception. Spock and I both have contacts that are looking into long term fixes for the hypothalamus damage but short term I’m getting him the same thermal clothing we use for the more cold blooded species that enroll into StarFleet.” 

“It shouldn’t be hard to get StarFleet to requisition those, there isn’t any reason they should deny that request. What about the pain?”

“It’s being kept under control by one of the few painkillers he isn’t allergic too. Once things start to settle down a bit I’m going to look into something to permanently dull the nerves leading from the Parietal lobe.” 

Neither of them seemed to have anything more to say, since both of their attentions seemed to drift back towards the back of the restaurant. It had already been a few minutes since Jim had left their table and both of them had expected him to be back already. They shared a look and stood up almost in tandem. 

They hadn’t even managed to get two steps away from the table when they were stopped in their tracks by a loud, shrill scream. They shared another look and then went racing towards the back of the restaurant. Pike managed to clear out a small path through the crowd of staff members that had quickly surrounded the entrance to the bathroom. As soon as Leonard found an opening through the people he bolted in through the door and came across a scene he hadn’t been anticipating. 

The man who had been catering to their table was laying on the ground screeching while clutching a heavily bleeding and mangled arm. There was a phaser lying a few feet away from his uninjured arm and a few feet past the man was…

“Jim!” 

Leonard dropped down to his knees beside Jim and gently ran his fingers over the base of his neck. He cursed himself silently for not thinking to bring his tricorder to the restaurant with him, he knew how damn accident prone Jim was. He was so focused on checking Jim over for any sort of head trauma that he didn’t even notice Brutus was laying a foot or so from the back of Jim’s head until the dog came over and gently licked his hand. 

He jumped slightly, though he managed to keep his hands steady where they were touching Jim, at the feel of the dogs sandpapery tongue on his hand. He glanced up and saw the blood splattered around Brutus’ mouth and then chanced a look at the man still writhing on the ground while Pike talked to him. It was only then that he truly took in the phaser and the injury to the man's arm and put two and two together to get four. 

“Good boy, Brutus.” He praised softly while he palpated the tips of his fingers across the back of Jim’s scalp to feel for any lesions or contusions. 

When he was satisfied that they were no such injuries he moved on to patting down the rest of Jim’s body, hoping to find the source of Jim’s unconsciousness. He found the site of the stun charge pretty quickly once he moved his focus away from Jim’s head and neck. 

“Pike,” He started, turning to face the older officer. 

“This guy stunned him, I know.” Pike interrupted him before he could waste his breath. Leonard could see that they was a paramedic hovering over top of the waiter, trying to get him to hold still enough that he could start using the portable dermal regenerator to help staunch the blood pouring from his arm. “Can we move Jim out of here or does he need transport to Medical?” 

Leonard shook his head and pulled Jim towards him to rest his upper body in his lap. “No, he should be fine to move, he thankfully doesn’t have any injuries other than the minor burns from being shot with a stun charge at such close range, nothing I can’t fix up with the equipment I have at the house.” 

Pike nodded and gestured for him to take Jim out of the room and presumably back to their house. 

But Leonard took one glance at all the looky loos hanging outside the door trying to peer in around the restaurant security that had posted themselves up at the door. “His injuries aren’t too severe, I’d rather wait till the mob recedes.” 

Pike stood up from his place kneeling beside the paramedics and walked up to the security guards. He whispered to them for a few seconds, flashing his StarFleet ID nonchalantly and watched as the two guards started ushering people away from the scene and back out into the restaurant. “Alright, give them a minute or two to get people rallied away from the hall and then you should be clear to get him out of here.” 

“Heard.” He waited until he could no longer hear voices outside the door to gather Jim up into his arms bridal style. He turned to see if Pike was going to come with him but he was busy instructing the paramedic to take the waiter to StarFleet medical as he flicked open his communicator to alert medical that they would need a security officer to watch over the guy. 

“I’ll be heading to StarFleet medical with the paramedic, here's the keys to the car.” Pike said as he pulled the keys out of his pocket and hooked the ring on one of his fingers since his hands were full trying to hold Jim up. “I’ll comm you when I figure out why the hell this guy stunned Jim.”

* * *

“Leonard!”

Leonard looked up from where he was sitting by the couch that he had set Jim on once they had gotten home. He started at the sound of Uhura’s voice booming through the house, he stood up and turned towards the entrance to the living room. Joanna came barrelling through the archway followed by Uhura and Spock at a more leisurely pace. 

He immediately stooped down to grab his daughter around the waist and swing her up into his arms. “Hey, Jo! How was your time with Mr. Spock and Miss Uhura?” He asked as he tickled her sides lightly. 

“It was fun! Miss Uhura got me a new book while we were at the mall.”

“Really, that was awful nice of her.” Bones said. He set Joanna down and tried to lightly steer her towards the kitchen and away from the couch so that she wouldn’t see Jim unconscious on the couch. “Why don’t you go ahead and put that book in your room and get changed into something else, when you are done we’ll decide what we are going to do for dinner later on.”

Joanna nodded enthusiastically as she clutched her book to her chest and took off towards the stairs. 

“So where is Jim?” Uhura asked somewhat suspiciously.

Bones sighed and tilted his head over towards the couch. “He’s on the couch.”

Uhura’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Is he sleeping? I thought you said he would be able to stay awake for longer periods of time by now.” She asked accusingly. 

Bones held up his hands in surrender and waved her over to the sofa. “He’s not sleeping, he was stunned during our attempt to eat lunch with Pike.”

“Stunned? Might I inquire as to who stunned him and why?” 

Spock and Uhura rounded the couch to see Jim clearly unconscious on the sofa, his breathing steady and slow. “A waiter at the restaurant we went to stunned him, according to Pike once he and the guy got to the hospital and his arm was almost fully repaired he admitted to being hired to kidnap and possibly ‘dispose of’ Jim.”

Both of Spock’s eyebrows rose up in what could only be described as shock and Uhura’s face was overcome by a stormy expression. 

“Does Pike know who hired him?” 

“Why was his arm injured?” The two of them questioned in tandem. 

Bones carefully placed a loose blanket over top of Jim, mostly to occupy his hands and to make sure that if Joanna saw Jim she would only think that he was taking a nap and not injured once again. “The guy couldn’t tell us who it was that hired him. He got a physical envelope in the mail with a bunch of credit chips, a photo of Jim and a message stating that he needed to kidnap Jim. Once he had Jim secured he would call the number provided in the message and get the address of a secondary location that he would have to transport Jim to. His arm was injured because Brutus did his job and defended Jim.” 

“So we do not know who sent him the message or the incentive.” 

“No,” Bones shook his head. “Not at this point but Pike is working on retracing the route the envelope took since very few people use physical mail anymore and he also sent it back to StarFleet to see if they can either get DNA evidence or maybe some fingerprints off of it.”

Uhura, in a surprising display of frustration, kicked one of the legs of the coffee table hard enough to shift it a few inches. “He just can’t catch a break, can he? Everywhere he goes Frank is still trying to hurt him.” She quickly threw a hand up to silence Spock’s oncoming protest. “Sure, we don’t know for certain that Frank is the one who hired this guy but it’s a pretty big stretch to think there is someone _else_ out there who wants to kidnap Jim during a trial that's going on because _Frank_ just kidnapped Jim. It’s just frustrating to know that we can’t protect him, even now with Frank in jail he’s still in danger.” 

Her anger quickly simmered into worry, which left her deflated as she stared at Jim’s still form. 

Bones’ gaze flickered back and forth between her and Jim before he gently set a hand down on her shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. “I know how you feel, Uhura, but him constantly being in danger is part of the reason we got a service dog that was also trained as a guard dog. This could have been so much worse if Brutus hadn’t attacked that guy. As much as I feel like a hypocrite saying it, we need to look on the bright side and be glad he was just stunned and not actually kidnapped.” 

Uhura’s head inclined slightly and her mouth opened like she was about to say something but she was interrupted by Joanna thundering back into the room with Moli trotting after her. “Daddy, Moli learned how to roll over!” 

“That’s good, Sweetpea.” Bones praised with a small smile and leaned down to pat Moli on the head. “Did you think about what you want for dinner, yet?” 

“I want pizza!”

He blinked and then squinted at his daughter. “Again? We had pizza two nights ago.” He said slowly. 

“But I like pizza.” She stared into her dad’s eyes and made her bottom lip start to tremble. “Jim likes pizza to! We can ask him and then we’ll have a majority vote so we’ll get pizza!” 

“A majority vote?” Bones repeated to himself as his eyebrow raised up higher and higher. 

Joanna nodded. “Mr. Spock let me listen to some of the recorded negotiations that Jim was involved in. We can get some veggies on the pizza though, so it’ll be a little bit healthy.” 

“That was nice of him. Did you enjoy them?” Jim said groggily as he tried to get his arms to lift the rest of his body into a sitting position. Bones and Spock were immediately hovering over him and pulling him to sit up against the armrest of the couch. “And I lend my vote to veggie pizza.”

The two of them continued their hovering as Jim weakly rubbed his face and looked around the room. Uhura quickly took Joanna by the arm and led her into the kitchen, all the while distracting her with trying to decide on what pizza topping she wanted. 

“How are you feelin’, Jim?” 

“Like I got run over by a train and I caught a severe case of Deja Vu.” He answered, he stretched his arms up over his head only to release a loud groan as the newly healed skin of his shoulder tugged and pulled. He let his arms drop back down to his sides and turned to look at Bones and Spock. “Did you guys get the waiter?” 

Bones nodded and moved to sit down next to Jim’s legs while Spock assumed his normal parade rest stance at the side of the couch. “Yeah, Pike took him to StarFleet medical to get his arm healed up since Brutus tore it up pretty badly.”

At the mention of his service dog, Jim started glancing around the room before he realised that the german shepherd was laying down against the front of the couch below him. He reached down and gave the dog a quick scratch behind the ears as he praised him for defending him. “Did the waiter say who paid him to try and kidnap me?” 

Bones shook his head and brushed Jim’s hair back from his forehead. “The guy doesn’t know, he got an anonymous envelope at his home with instructions and a picture of you.”

Jim sighed and let his head fall back against the couch. “So that isn’t going to go anywhere.” Jim waved his hand in the air nonchalantly. “Not that it really matters, the guy is in StarFleet’s custody, so he’s out of the way.” 

“You don’t know it won’t go anywhere.” Bones said. “Pike sent the envelope to the crime labs, they might find some DNA or fingerprints or something.” 

“Like I said it doesn’t really matter, chances are Frank was the one to send it and even if he did it's not like an attempt to kidnap me is really going to change the course of the trial.” Jim didn’t seem so much defeated as he seemed more irritated by the fact that he had been stunned and injured yet _again_. Jim rolled his eyes and went back to scratching Brutus behind the ears. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Can we just focus on the pizza we are getting and why JoJo was talking about a majority vote?” 

Bones frowned, barely managing to keep himself from diving back into the previous conversation. “Yeah, apparently Spock letting her watch your negotiations has given her some new materials to work with when she wants to get her way.” 

Jim chuckled and turned towards Spock. “Are you and Uhura staying for dinner? I know you were with Joanna all day but it’d be nice to just talk to you guys for a little bit over a dinner where no one will try to kidnap me.” 

“Of course, Jim. We will stay for dinner.” Jim beamed up at him and held out his arms so that Spock and Bones could help him up off of the couch.

* * *

The senior crew of the Enterprise watched with bated breath as Jim made his way towards the witness stand. They had already sat through the testimonies of several of Frank’s _accomplices _and the prosecution had finally managed to call Jim to the stand as a witness.__

Technically he was a victim not a witness, but he was called as a witness all the same. 

Brutus took a seat at the bottom of the witness stand while Jim clambered his way up the short few steps to his seat. He shifted around in clear nervousness for a few seconds before reaching out to fumbled around in front of him to find where the microphone was located. 

The prosecutor wait for Jim to get settled as he stood up and walked forward into the space between the judge's bench and the prosecutors desk. “Mr. Kirk, if you would please state your full name for the courts record as well as why you have been called to the witness stand.” 

Jim cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly. “My name is James Tiberius Kirk and I’m here...I’m here because I was kidnapped and assaulted by my stepfather.”

“Is your stepfather here in court today, Mr. Kirk?”

“Yes.”

The lawyer nodded and gestured around the room. “Could you tell the court who he is.” 

“My stepfather is the defendant, Frank Charles Burkoff.” Jim said softly, his voice barely getting picked up by the microphone in front of him, as he pointed towards the general area of the defenses table. 

“Good.” The lawyer nodded again and turned slightly towards the jury. “Now, can you tell us what happened? Preferably starting from when he first kidnapped you.”

Jim blinked and cast his gaze down towards the wood in front of him. “I...I was supposed to be on shoreleave while my ship, The USS Enterprise, was undergoing repairs. The first few days, however, were supposed to be spent in meetings with the Admirals of StarFleet to go over the details of my crews next mission since there wouldn’t be enough time to debrief myself and my first officer after our shoreleave.”

“So, your stepfather kidnapped you during one of these meetings?” 

“Technically, no. I was one my way back from one of the last meetings we were supposed to have when one of the Admirals asked me to come back to his office for a drink. I refused and instead went back to my temporary apartment to try and get some sleep…” Jim trailed off and stared out into the court for a few seconds before shaking his head and coming back to himself. “My stepfather was already in the apartment when I got there. He...subdued me with a shot from a phazer set to stun and then kept me tied up on his lap for a time before drugging me and stuffing me into a suitcase so that he could get me out of the building unseen.”

“What happened next?” 

There was a moment of silence as Jim glanced quickly at where Frank was sat before turning his eyes back down to the podium. “I woke up in the backseat of a car, once I was fully awake Frank pushed me down between the front and back seats and tied me between them so I couldn’t move. Frank drove for a little bit and then a cop car pulled us over because he ran a stop light…” 

A hush fell over the court as everyone listened intently to Jim’s recounting of what had happened. Everyone had heard McGareth and Andreas’ testimonies on their parts in the crime but Jim was delving into things that had yet to be brought to anyone’s attention. Some of the things he said had happened even shocked his own senior command crew, since he hadn’t truly disclosed the full story of his ordeal even to them. 

His story ended with the last memory he had from before he woke up in the hospital, the memory of Frank forcing him to play russian roulette with him. The jury and the general people in the court wore matching horrified expressions as the Prosecutor thanked Jim for his testimony and nodded to the judge that he was done with the witness. 

As the prosecutor sat back down, the defense attorney rose to stand in front of the defendants table. He buttoned one button on his overcoat and nodded towards Jim once the Judge allowed him to start cross examining the testimony. “Mr. Kirk, you stated that your step-father kidnapped your from your apartment, correct? 

Jim nodded. 

“Did you, at any point during the hours that Mr. Burkoff was in the apartment with you, try to run away or call for help?” 

Jim squinted in the general direction of the attorney. “As I said before, he stunned me once I was inside the apartment and kept me tied up the whole time I was there.” 

“That doesn’t answer my question. At any time, did you attempt to leave or call for help.” 

“No, I didn’t call for help or run away because I was tied up and gagged.”

The attorney shrugged and nodded condescendingly. “What about when he allegedly killed the police officer who pulled him over or when he supposedly raped and killed a woman? Did you attempt to escape at those times? Did you even try to help those people he apparently killed?” 

A light huff was all the answer he got as Jim looked in his direction with an astonished look on his face. 

“You say he killed these people, all while you were either in the room or in the car with him. So, if you were there, are you not just as culpable in their deaths and mistreatments as your stepfather was?” 

Jim was nearly speechless. Nearly. “I was still tied up during both of those incidents and to answer your second question I don’t think I’m culpable for those crimes seeing as I did not commit them. My stepfather did while he was holding me hostage and dragging me from California to Iowa.” 

“You keep saying you were kidnapped, held hostage, and taken across state lines without your consent, yet not once have you said that you tried to escape or told you step father you didn't want to be with him. In fact, you states that you _did not_ at any time attempt to escape.” 

“I keep telling you that I was tied up and gagged or drugged for most of the time. There was no way for me _to_ escape or call for help or even tell him I didn’t want to be near him.” Jim hissed out incredulously. “The whole time I was with McGareth and Dr. Andreas I was trying to convince them to let me go.” 

“So you only wanted to be let go was when you were left alone with two sexual predators who weren’t your stepfather.” 

The prosecutor quickly stood up with a loud screech of his chair. “Objection! Your honor, he keeps asking the same question again and again, Mr. Kirk has already given several adequate answers.” 

The judge nodded towards the prosecutor and turned to address the defense. “Sustained, either continue on with your cross exam or cut Mr. Kirk loose.”

With his hands held up placatingly the attorney turned back to his desk and pulled out a clear evidence bag holding a 21st century style revolver. “The defense enters in Exhibit L. Mr. Kirk, could you identify the piece of evidence in this bag?” He asked shortly as he walked forward and handed it to Jim. 

Jim felt around the bag until he got the cold metal of the gun in the palm of his hand. “I’m pretty sure this is the gun my stepfather used to make me play russian roulette with him.” 

“Pretty sure?” 

“In my earlier testimony I described the fact that Dr.Andreas’ medical procedure cause me to lose a significant amount of vision as a side effect. I can’t see the gun but I remember what it feels like.” Jim explained carefully. “I can’t say for certain that it isn’t a gun that is the same make and model rather than the actual one that I dealt with but it is the same _type_ of gun.” 

The attorney gave a haughty snort and accepted the evidence bag that was handed back to him, with the gun in hand he turned towards the Judge while waving for Jim to step down from the witness’ box. “If I may, your honor, my client wishes to...reenact a part of the scene that Mr. Kirk is describing.” 

“Objection!” The prosecutor called out dubiously. 

The attorney simply tilted his head to the side. “What is there to object? Earlier the courts allowed Doctor Andreas to reenact his ‘procedure’.” 

“That reenactment was not done on the victim of said act! What is the relevance of making a victim relive a traumatic experience?” 

The two lawyers stare each other down from their respective sides of the courtroom until the Judge finally banged the gavel to get their attention. “Normally I would overrule a suggestion such as this but seeing as I have already allowed a different defendant the same leeway, I can not in good conscious, deny this motion.” The Judge sent a strained look over towards Jim. “Mr. Kirk, if you would please step down and walk to the center of the room.” 

The gavel was once again banged on the Judge’s podium as he tried to draw order to the court over the shouted protests from the gallery in front of them. Jim wasn’t sure if it was his crew shouting or just most of the audience in general. 

With a shaky exhale Jim stood up and started to descend from the witness box. He let Brutus lead him out towards the center of the room until he could see the blur that was Frank’s defense attorney standing only a foot or two away from him. The attorney took him by the shoulders and turned him to face the people gathered in the gallery, he then put the small metal revolver into Jim’s hand. 

Jim could feel his hand start to tremble slightly as the cold metal settled in the palm of his hand. 

“Now, if you could please show the court exactly what you did when you played Russian Roulette with your stepfather.”

“I’m pretty sure everyone in this court knows what Russian Roulette looks like.” Jim said resignedly but he was met with a motion to continue what he was doing. He could feel his heart rate start to skyrocket as he brought the gun’s barrel up to his temple. 

His heart was in his throat as the gun’s barrel slid and jolted across his temple as he tried to keep his head steady but failed. His breath caught in his throat as yells of outrage once again started pouring out from the gallery in front of him. He heard the judge banging his gavel and calling for order as his finger twitched and pulled the trigger. 

Just the sound, even though it was only the dull click of an empty chamber, sent Jim falling to his knees barely able to breath after he chucked the gun away from himself. The noise of the courtroom was drowned out by a low buzzing sound that filled his ears. 

Jim brought his hands up to cover his ears in an attempt to dull the buzzing. He could vaguely feel Brutus come up to rest against his side and start licking his fingers. 

“Jim...” 

There was another set of hands cupping themselves over Jim’s and trying to pull them away from his head, he tried to ignore them but they were insistent. Suddenly another hand was tugging gently at one of his hands, this one much stronger than the last two. That hand gently pried one of his hands away from his face only for the first set of hands to reach up and cradle his face. 

The next thing he knew, that strong hand was clamping down on his shoulder. 

Then there was nothing.

* * *

Jim groaned as he woke up, blinking groggily to try and clear his vision before he realised that his vision wasn’t going to clear up any time soon. He felt like he had been run over by a truck and the cold breeze that was moving slowly through the room didn't help any. A quick glance around the room made it obvious that he wasn’t at home. 

From the blurred white walls to the slightly dull splashes of color that were at eye level and the soft beeping of machines in the background. 

Obviously he was back in a medbay. 

Again. 

“This is like the worst case of Deja Vu ever. God, I need to stop waking up in medbay’s.” He groaned, trying desperately to get his upper body to actually lift his weight up off the bed. 

He had just managed to convince his body to cooperate on sitting up when the doors to his room slid open. 

“Jim, you should be laying down.” 

Bones’ gruff voice brought a soft smile to Jim’s face and he let himself fall back against the sheets as Bones made his way over to him with a PADD in his hand. “What happened? Why am I back in a medbay for the hundredth time this month?” 

Bones looked disgruntled at the question. “You don’t remember what happened yesterday?” He fiddled around with the monitor attached to Jim’s bio-bed while he waited for an answer. 

Jim squinted and tried to forcefully bring up the memories from the last day but besides the memory of heading over to the courthouse, nothing was coming to mind. “I remember going to the courthouse yesterday, I vaguely remember hearing McGareth try and spin his side of the tale to try and get sympathy from the jury.” 

“So you don’t remember giving your testimony to the court? Or when Frank’s attorney asked you to reenact Frank making you play Russian Roulette and you had a panic attack in front of the whole court?” Bones asked softly. 

He inhaled sharply when Bones listed off the things he didn’t remember, but even being told about them didn’t truly bring the memories back. “No, I don’t remember any of that.” Jim rubbed his hands over his face and took a deep breath. “What am I doing here, then? Shouldn’t I be back in court finishing my testimony?” 

He shook his head. “No, the Judge postponed the trial for a week due to the outburst and Pike is trying to get witness intimidation charges tacked onto Frank’s laundry list as well as charge the defense attorney with it.” Bones sighed. “You remember that friend I told you about before? Carl Beaumont?” 

“Yeah, you said he might be able to help correct my vision?” 

“Yes.” Bones agreed with a nodd. “He works primarily in researching and developing new techniques for optical and vision problems with a specialty in vision problems caused specifically by brain damage. I told him the bare minimum of what happened to you medically and he’s been working on something to... assist your eyes. It won’t fix the damage to your Occipital lobe but it’ll make it so you can see without your vision being completely blurred.”

“What do I have to do?”

Bones pulled out a tri-corder and set about giving Jim a quick once over with it as he kept talking. “Since we have a week before the trial starts up again I called him here so we can get to work.” He grabbed Jim’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “As for you, you don’t need to do anything other than try and relax. The treatment he came up with is two parts. First will be a surgery, Carl and I will implant a thin film between the back of the lens in your eyes and the retina.”

“That implant will help the lens reflect the light onto your retinas correctly as well as help your retinas transmit that light into an actual shape.” He paused and shot a questioning look towards Jim to see if he was understanding what he was saying, he only continued once Jim had nodded. “Once that’s done Carl is going to fit you with a pair of glasses that will interact with the implant to give you depth perception. You won’t have 20/20 vision and you’ll have to wear glasses for the rest of your life but you will be able to see.” 

Jim nodded. “When can we start?” 

“Carl should get here in an hour or two, once he’s here we’ll prep you for surgery and then sedate you.”

* * *

“Len?” A quiet voice called as the door to Jim’s room swished open. 

Both Jim and Leonard turned to see a tall man, probably in his mid to late 40’s, step into the room. He had a small PADD in one hand while the other held a large briefcase. Leonard immediately went over to greet him, giving him a firm handshake and a clap on the back before turning to introduce him to Jim. 

“Jim, this is Carl Beaumont, he’s a colleague of mine from back in Georgia.” 

Jim smirked and stuck out his hand. Carl moved to set his belonging down on a table and gave Jim a short but firm handshake. “Jim Kirk. So you’re the man who is going to help me get my vision back.” 

Carl sent a somewhat nervous glance towards Leonard and cleared his throat lightly. “I definitely intend to, Captain Kirk. It would be quite remiss of me to come all the way here only to not do anything at all.”

Jim gave him a disarming smile, he hit a button on the side of the bio-bed to raise himself up into an almost sitting up position. Leonard pulled up a chair for Carl to sit on and then made his own way to sit down next to Jim’s bed. 

Jim watched the other doctor as he started unpacking his briefcase and laying a multitude of things down onto the table. He and Leonard watched silently as Carl finished unpacking his things and wheeled the little table over towards then while dragging his chair with one hand. 

The man sat down with a soft _thwump_ and gestured for them both to lean in closer to the table. “Now, Mr. Kirk, I’m sure Leonard has told you what some of these things are and what they’ll eventually do but I’d much rather go through it another time to make sure you are completely informed.”

He nodded and sat up just a bit straighter. “Okay.”

Carl picked a pair of dark framed glasses and held them up for Jim to take. He waited patiently until Jim was done running his hands along it, then he accepted it back. “Those are going to be the glasses that you will have to wear once the surgery is done. They’ll be what’ll give you your depth perception, they will be linked to the implants and work with the implants to correctly translate the lights that filter through your eyes.” 

Next he pulled out a little round case, when he opened it there were two small almost translucent circles within it. Each one wasn’t even the size of a pencil eraser and even though Jim couldn’t see or feel them, he already had been told that they look like tiny 21st century contacts.

“These will be implanted in the vitreous, the jelly like substance that makes up the middle of your eye, between the lenses at the front of your eye and the layer of retina at the back of your eyes.” Carl took a breath and placed the implants back on the table. “Now, based off of the scans that Leonard took, the main problem with your vision seems to be a disruption with how the lenses are sensing the light and how they filter it onto the retinas. These implants will make sure the light that the lenses filter actually makes it to the retina while the glasses will make sure only the appropriate amount of light gets through to the actual lenses.” 

Jim stared at him with a disgruntled look for a few seconds before his brain sort of translated what the man was actually saying into terms that he could work with. “So, you’re saying that the problem is my lenses aren’t filtering any light onto my retinas?”

“No, in fact your lenses are filtering at least a small amount of light onto your retinas otherwise you would be completely blind. That means that either the lenses are filtering far less than they need to or they are simply reflecting it back onto the retina wrong.”

He just nodded along with it, pleased at the explanation, and motioned for him to continue. 

The next thing he grabbed was the PADD that he had brought in with him, though this time he passed it to Leonard instead of passing it to Jim to inspect. “The PADD has the programming for both the glasses and the implants on it. I have the two of them linked up to each other already, but I want to actually get into the surgery room and see exactly what is wrong with your eyes before I finish up the finer details of the actual calibrations.”

Leonard handed him back his PADD after he read through the program parameters. Carl placed everything back into his briefcase and turned to face Jim. “Do you have any questions about the procedure or about the actual components themselves?” He asked as he rested his hands on his knees and leaned forward. 

Jim thought about what he had been told so far, the explanation had been clear and while he didn’t have a medical degree that would allow him to fully comprehend what was going on, he was at least able to know enough to give informed consent to the surgery. “No, I think between you and Bones I pretty much understand as much as I’m going to.” 

Carl clapped his hands together lightly and turned to address Leonard as he got up off of his chair. “Alright, in that case, I guess we’ll go ahead and get you prepped for surgery and sedated. Leonard, I think it’s safe to assume that you’ll want to take care of helping him get changed and since I’m not familiar with all of his allergies you’ll have to pick out the sedative.” 

Leonard just nodded and gave Jim a quick squeeze to the shoulder. He gave Carl some detailed instructions on how to get to the operating room, he told him that it would probably take at least fifteen minutes to get Jim prepped and sedated. Once Carl was out of the room Leonard went about getting a hypo filled with an appropriate sedative. 

When he turned around Jim had already started to strip out of his current clothing so that he could get changed into the standard medical gown. Len grabbed a gown from one of the cabinets and threw it over onto Jim’s face.

“Hey!” Jim whined jokingly as he yanked the gown off his head and shoved his head threw the hole in the top. “I’m about to get surgery, you ass! You shouldn’t assault a patient!” 

Leonard snorted and helped Jim tug his arms into the gown so that he could lace up the back. “I don’t assault patients, now open your mouth and take your medicine.” 

Jim raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Bones. One, that was a horrible line and two, we both know you are going to - ACK!” Jim interrupted himself with a yelp as he slapped his hand over the spot where Bones had stabbed him in the neck with a hypo-spray. He looked up and glared at Bones while he rubbed his neck. 

“You’ll be asleep in a minute or two, Jim. See ya when you wake up!” Leonard sang sarcastically as he set the bio-bed to hover so he could push Jim to the operating room. 

“Yer an azz.” Jim slurred softly, his eyes drifting closed slowly as the walls of the medbay passed by him. 

~~~~~

“Jim.” Jim groaned and squeezed his eyes shut tightly when a hand cupped his chin while another shook his shoulder. He lifted his hands and tried to swat at whoever decided to was a good idea to try and wake him but he only got a chuckle in response. “Jim, c’mon, it’s time to wake up, Darlin’.”

He shook his head and moved to roll over onto his side, his attempt was quickly thwarted by those hands moving to press down firmly on his shoulders. Finally he decided that the struggle wasn’t worth the energy it was taking him to try and move his body around, instead he huffed dramatically. 

Jim did, however, almost jump out of his skin in fright when he opened his eyes and saw nothing. 

Nothing. 

Like, just straight up, pitch black, nothing.

“Bones.” He whispered, his mind moving a million miles per minute as it drudged up every horrible possibility of what could have gone wrong while at the same time his heart had screeched to a halt inside his chest. 

Immediately, those hands were back on his face, gently stroking his cheeks to try and calm down his suddenly staggering breaths. 

Then Leonard’s voice filtered into his brain from above him. “Darlin’, calm down. The surgery went just fine, you weren’t blinded, there's just some bandages over your eyes because I wasn’t exactly sure when you were going to wake up and I wanted a chance to dim the lights down before you opened your eyes.” Leonard said, his tone obviously pitched low to soothe Jim’s frayed nerves. 

Leonard’s hands grabbed a hold of his chin and directed it until Jim could only assume he would have been staring directly at Leonard’s face. He felt those hands wander upwards until they pressed down gently on either side of his eyes up near his temples. Now that Bones was pressing down, Jim could vaguely feel the rough texture of the gauze bandages that were wrapped around his face. 

Thankfully his heart decided to stop its imitation of a hyper kid with a drum set and settled down into a normal rhythm. Using Bones’ arms as a guidance point he trailed his hands upwards until he could run his fingers over the gauze himself. Only once he had fully explored the bandages with his own fingers did he actually start interacting with Bones again. 

“Your eyes are fine, just give me a few seconds to dim down the lights and go get Carl. When I come back we’ll get the bandages off and test out the glasses.” Jim felt his hands slowly slip off his face and then he heard his footsteps recede out the door. 

He sat back against the bio-bed and tried to steady his breathing while he waited for the two doctors to return to the room. It took a few minutes, like Bones had said it would, before he heard the telltale swish of the door opening followed by two sets of footsteps. 

Those hands were once again back on his face again, gently pulling apart the knot that kept the bandages tied behind his head. “I want you to keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them, okay?” 

Jim nodded and squeezed his eyes shut as the last of the gauze fell from in front of his eyes. Bones’ cold fingertip once again began prodding around his face, they were careful to press around his eyes but without actually pressing right against his eyes. It was oddly soothing to feel the gentle pressure making its way around his face. 

“Alright, you can open your eyes now, just keep them facing downwards for a few seconds.” 

He did as he was told, slowly letting his eyes open. He had to blink a few times because even with the lights in the room dimmed quite a bit it was still slightly painful and disorienting to go from pitch black to any kind of light. It also took him a little bit to realise that his vision wasn’t just a big blur. It most definitely wasn’t _clear_ per say, but he could actually see the shape of different things as well as see most of the color. 

It was an improvement and that was a huge leap forward in Jim’s mind. “I can see.” He whispered. 

“How’s it look?” 

Jim sniffled and let out a watery laugh as he turned to look, _to look_ at Bones. “I can see again, Bones!” 

Leonard’s face was still a bit blurry as he walked into Jim’s field of view, he could see the individual features of his face but they were all blurred at the edges. “That’s good, Jim, but I need a little more detail than that. Is it still blurry when things are up close or just far away? Is anything distorted? Do the colors seem wrong?” 

He shook his head and looked towards the corner of the room where Carl was fiddling around with his briefcase. “It’s a bit blurry up close and still pretty blurry when I’m looking at things from far away but the colors all seem fine.” 

Leonard nodded and turned to face Carl. “Are the glasses almost ready?” 

“Yeah, they’re ready to go.” Carl made his way over to the bed and once again held the glasses out for Jim to take. “It might take a minute or two for your eyes to completely adjust to the glasses and the implant working together so your vision maybe be a bit distorted but it will go away.” 

Jim nodded and accepted the glasses, now that his vision was back he could see that the glasses were made up of a thick black set of frames with normal clear lenses. They just looked like a standard pair of glasses even though for some reason in his mind Jim had thought that they would look a lot more high tech. 

He spared a glance at Leonard and Carl before he closed his eyes and put the glasses on. He took a deep steadying breath and opened his eyes. 

The sight was almost enough to make him start crying. There was, honestly, a little bit of distortion but it was for the most part easy to ignore when Jim focused on the fact that he could see _everything_. Bones’ face was no longer blurry, he could see the light laugh lines around the corners of Carl’s mouth, he could see the charts that were hanging up on the other side of the room. 

When he focused back on Leonard and Carl they were looking at him expectantly, obviously waiting for him to tell them what was happening. “It looks good, I can see clearly again!” 

Leonard smiled at his enthusiasm. “Great.” 

“Is there any distortion?”

Jim nodded. “A little bit but it’s mostly around the edges and it’s fading pretty quickly.” 

Both doctors seemed relieved at that news. Leonard grabbed his shoulder and gave it a good squeeze. Carl had a smile on his face, he was clearly pleased that his creation was working. 

Jim leaned into Leonard’s side and wrapped an arm around his waist in a one armed hug. “I can’t wait to get home.”

* * *

Jim held Bones’ hand tightly, he knew he was nearly cutting off the circulation in Bones’ hand but he didn’t care at the moment. It didn’t seem like Bones really cared either since all of his focus was on staring straight ahead of them. 

It had been a long and tiring trial, for more than just Jim. But it was finally coming to an end. Andreas had already changed his plea to guilty on all charges and in return the judge had sentenced him to 20 years in a maximum security prison without chance of parole. He had also lost all of his medical licenses as well as his medical practice. The rest of the defendants, barring Jim’s mother and Frank, had either pleaded guilty or accepted some kind of plea bargain after the fiasco that was led by Frank’s attorney.

His mother had tried to convince the jury that everything that had happened to him was actually Jim’s own fault, a line of conversation that clearly hadn’t ended up sitting well with the jury. She had been found guilty on all of the accessory charges and the obstruction of justice charges. She had already been sentenced to 70 consecutive years in a maximum security prison. 

But here they were, waiting to hear whether or not the jury had found Frank guilty of the copious amounts of charges that had been leveled against him. Bones, Pike and everyone else had been reassuring him all day as the jury tried to make its decision that they would find Frank guilty and he had no reason to worry. 

Jim bit his lip and watched as the jurors filed one by one back into the court. Part of him was stressed out by how nonchalant the faces of the jurors were and he honestly wished that he had his blurry vision back so at least he wouldn’t be able to psyche himself up by trying to guess their decisions. 

“It’s almost over, Darlin’.” Bones whispered to him as he rubbed his thumb back and forth over the back of Jim’s hand. 

The judge entered the court and quickly stepped up to the elevated chair behind the bench. Once the man sat down and got himself settled he turned to address the audience members of the court. “We are all gathered here to witness the sentencing of Frank Burkoff. Will the defendant please rise for the sentencing.” 

Once Frank had stood up the judge turned to face the jurors. “Have you reached a verdict?” 

“We have, your honor.” A tall man stood up at the end of the jury box and handed a small piece of paper to the courtroom clerk so that he could hand it to the judge. The judge carefully unfolded the paper and read what was on it before nodding slightly and handing it back to the clerk. 

“In the case of StarFleet v. Frank Burkoff, on the charge of Kidnapping in the first degree in regards to Joanna Eleanor McCoy, how does the jury find the defendant?” 

The man cleared his throat and stood up a little bit straighter. “We find the defendant guilty.” 

Jim heard the air _whoosh_ out of Bones’ lungs next to him. 

“On the charge of Kidnapping in the first degree in regards to James Tiberius Kirk, how does the jury find the defendant?” 

“Guilty.” The man said definitively. 

The rest of the verdicts seemed to pass quickly, almost like a montage of voices running at three times the speed inside Jim’s head. Frank was quickly deemed guilty on all of the charges that had stacked up against him and Jim watched silently in astonishment as Frank was sentenced to two life sentence to be served consecutively in a maximum security prison without possibility of parole. 

Before everything had even had the chance to settle in his mind he could hear the sounds of people getting up and beginning to leave the court now that the sentencing had been done for the day. 

Jim watched as the security officer that was stationed next to the bench where Frank had been sat ordered Frank to turn around. His mind raced as the officer cuffed him and gave him a few more moments to talk to his lawyer as well as the few people who still seemed to be on his side despite him being declared guilty. 

Jim closed his eyes and took a second to gather his wits about himself. Then he stood up with a determined look on his face as he stared at Frank. 

He ignored Bones’ had on his waist and let it slide off loosely as he took a step out into the aisle. It took a second but he managed to catch the officers attention so that he would stop ushering Frank out of the room, the man was looking at him with hesitation clear in his eyes but still allowed him to approach his stepfather.

As Frank turned to see who had stopped them a devious smile crawled its way over his cruel lips. 

“What is it, Jimmy-boy?” He asked with a raspy chuckle. “You come to give me a kiss goodbye? I wouldn’t mind, I always have loved that mouth o’ yours and it might give me something to think about while I bide my time.” 

Jim released a steady breath and kept his gaze locked onto Frank’s eyes. “No, but I did want to thank you.” 

Frank’s grin only grew larger and more devious, instead of turning to confusion like Jim had thought it might. “Oh? Do you wanna thank me for being so nice to you or for making you stronger?”

“You didn’t make me stronger.” Jim kept his eyes focused and his voice strong. “You just gave me the means to see the strength that I already had. You didn’t change anything about me.” 

The grin that Frank had been wearing slowly morphed into a frown filled with anger. “I made you who you are!” Frank hissed. “You wouldn’t be anything without me, you would have been just another waste of space!” 

Jim shook his head slowly and suddenly, as he took in the look on Frank’s face and the fact that Frank truly was going away for good finally settled in his mind, it felt as if a terrible weight uncurled and lifted itself off of his chest. “You changed how I acted, not who I was. I was already strong without you.” Jim said softly, almost like he was talking to himself instead of to Frank. “Have a good life in prison, Frank.”

Jim turned back towards the exit of the court and saw his senior crew staring at him. He gave them a smile, a smaller one that his usual smile, but it was a enlightened smile. He walked over to them and reached down to grasp Bones’ hand and lean against his side. Behind him, Frank was seething and as the officer started to pull him towards the door he lunged towards Jim. 

The strength of the lunge and the shock of it was enough to get the officer to accidently release his hold on Frank’s handcuffs. Bones grabbed a hold of Jim’s shoulders and basically threw him behind his back to get him out of Frank’s path. But it wasn’t needed because the second Frank got close to Jim, Brutus was lunging forwards and jumping to bite down on Frank’s shoulder. 

The force of the jump caused Frank to be twisted around and slammed into the ground beneath him. Frank hit the floor with a loud yell; he writhed around on the floor, trying to kick and squirm away from the dog on top of him but since his hands were still handcuffed behind his back, he was unable to really do anything to stop Brutus. The officer quickly shook off the shock and moved towards the downed man, only to hover about a foot away and watch anxiously as Brutus continued to bite and tear at Frank’s shoulder. 

“Brutus! Come!” Jim shouted, his voice just barely loud enough to carry over the sounds of Frank’s yells and the other people in the courts gasps and noises of confusion. Brutus’ head shot up and the dog quickly released Frank’s shoulder to trot over to where Jim was. He sniffed at Jim’s side and arms before sitting at attention next to his right leg. 

Jim looked up to see that the officer had pulled Frank up off the floor and had sat him down on one of the benches so that a medic could look at him. Jim, against his better judgement, was about to go over and make sure that Frank was okay when Pike grabbed his shoulder and steered him towards the exit of the court. 

“Come on, Jim. The trial is done, we should be heading out.” Pike said softly.

Once they were walking away Pike let go of Jim’s shoulder but kept corralling him towards the exit of the court. Jim adjusted his glasses slightly, the rest of his senior crew were already lingering around outside in the lobby of the courthouse. 

He watched as Bones and Joanna walked past him but then his attention was pulled towards the crowd of people who were milling about in the lobby. What his eyes locked onto made him let out a sharp gasp.

* * *

Bones turned quickly as he heard Jim take in a sharp breath behind him. "Jim? What's wrong?" He asked quickly, the hand not holding Joanna's slipped down to grasp Jim's arm. 

Jim was staring off into the distance with a strange look on his face that Bones had never seen before. "I'm fine, Bones." Jim said quietly, he squeezed Bones' hand and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his cheek. "I just saw someone I need to talk to real quick. Why don't you and JoJo go on ahead and meet up with the rest of the crew. I'll only be a couple of minutes." 

"Well, we'll come with you." Bones kept his hand in Jim’s but turned to scan the lobby and see exactly _who_ Jim was looking at. 

Jim turned to him with a hesitant smile. "I'll be fine, Bones. I need to talk to them privately. I'll be over in a few minutes." 

Bones sighed and shot Jim an irritated look but the small smile on Jim's face told him that Jim needed to talk to whoever it was and that Jim didn't have any reason to believe that whoever it was, was going to hurt him. "Fine, you have ten minutes before I'm coming after you, Darlin'. And Brutus is going with you.” 

He got a dazed nod in response and then Jim was walking away from him and into the crowd. He kept his eye trained on his boyfriend until the blonde and his trusty service dog disappeared into the crowd, then he stooped down and picked Joanna up so that they could go meet up with the rest of the crew. 

Jim felt like he was in a trance as he made his way towards the dark haired figure in the distance. He already knew who it was. Even after all these years, after the boy he knew had left and grown up, he would still always know it was him. 

He sucked in a deep breath and he walked up behind the man and tapped his shoulder. The man turned around and he silently thanked Bones for the glasses that had lessened his blurry vision enough so that he could see the pair of dull blue eyes as they locked onto his. 

"Sam." He called breathlessly. 

His brother stared at him for a second, sadness and guilt swirling around in his eyes and Jim had to stop himself from frowning at the dark shadows that were painted under his eyes. 

"Jim." Sam echoed so quietly that Jim had to strain to hear him. His adams apple bobbed harshly as he audibly swallowed. They stood there staring at each other for what felt like an eternity before Sam surged forward and caught his little brother in a crushing embrace. Jim could feel his brothers shuddering breaths against his chest as he brought his arms up and returned the embrace as hard as he could. "I'm so sorry." Sam sobbed against his neck.

Jim pressed his face hard against Sam's shoulder to keep himself from crying as he heard the shame and pain in Sam's voice. "It's not your fault, Sammy." He said softly, his voice cracking with the pressure of keeping himself from crying along with his brother. "Nothing he did to me was ever your fault." 

Sam pulled back away from him at that, though he didn't remove his hands from Jim, instead he moved his hands so that they were gripping Jim's upper arms. "I left you with him." 

Jim shook his head and moved forward to hug his brother again. "You didn't know what he was doing, Sam." 

Jim sagged forward slightly as Sam pressed his cheek against the top of his head. He felt his rub his cheek along his hair. "I - I thought he was just hitting _me_. I never saw any bruises or cuts on you and he always seemed to like you, so I thought that maybe he would leave you alone." He shuddered. "I didn't realize...I didn't realize why he liked you."

Sam squeezed Jim a little bit tighter. "I would have never left you alone with him if I had known what he was doing to you."

Jim nuzzled his head against Sam's shoulder a little before pulling back. "I don't blame you, I never have. You were just trying to do what you had to survive." Jim said quietly. "I can't blame anyone for just trying to survive. He was hurting you and who knows, he might have ended up killing you if you had stayed."

Jim sighed. "I'm just glad you stayed as long as you did and that you came back today." 

Sam gave him a watery smile at that. "I had to come. I wasn't there for you when all of this actually happened, I thought that even if you hated me for leaving, I would at least be able to try and be here for you now." 

Sam hugged him again, it seemed as if his older brother thought he might turn around and start hating him if he ever let go of him again. Jim linked their arms together once Sam finally pulled away from him and gave him a soft smile.

"Listen, Sam, there's some people I would like you to meet." He started softly as he pulled Sam along in the direction he had come from. "I think you'll really like them." 

Sam sniffed and pulled Jim up against his side as he wrapped his arm around Jim's shoulder. "Once I'm done meeting them, do you think you would like to meet my family?" 

Jim turned to him, his eyes bright and enthusiastic. "Your family?" 

"I have a wife." He said sheepishly. "And three kids, two boys and a girl." 

"Sam, that's wonderful!" Jim cheered happily. "I'd love to meet them!" 

"Good.” Sam smiled and hugged Jim just a bit harder with his one arm as they headed out of the courthouse. “Because James has always wanted to meet his namesake." 

The two brother made their way down to the car that Jim and his crew had come in with Brutus trotting along contentedly next to them.

* * *

Bones sighed as the door to the master bedroom swished shut behind him. This whole day had been hectic, between Frank getting sentenced and meeting Jim's brother and his family. _That_ had been a shock to everyone, since no one except Pike had ever even knew Jim had a brother until the whole incident with Delvia, let alone that he was on speaking terms with said brother. 

Jim and Joanna were already fast asleep on the bed, having fallen asleep almost immediately after they got home from the restaurant they had met Sam’s family at. Both of them were exhausted from the emotional havoc the trial had wreaked on them. Jim had almost his whole body curled around Joanna who had her head resting on his chest and her arms wrapped tight around his waist. Lower on the bed, behind Joanna's knees was Moli who was curled up tight in a little ball while Brutus was laying across Jim's feet at the foot of the bed.

Leonard rolled his eyes at the sight of the dogs piled onto his bed but he walked over and crawled into bed anyway. Who was he to shoo the dogs away when they were helping his boyfriend and his daughter feel better? 

Only Brutus looked up when Bones climbed under the covers and snuggled up to Jim's back. The German Shepherd tilted it's head to the side for a second as it scrutinized Leonard and then laid back down to sleep. Leonard kissed the back of Jim's neck and hunkered down behind him. 

Nothing was by any means perfect and Jim and Joanna weren't completely healed, there was a chance that they might never completely heal mentally from an ordeal like this but they were on the road to recovery. 

As Leonard felt himself start to drift off he cast one last look at his boyfriend, his daughter and the two dogs curled up on the bed. 

Everything wasn't perfect. 

But right now, at this moment? 

Their demons had been caught, deemed guilty and sentenced to prison. 

This was good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked it! I'm honestly going to miss this story. If you guys have anything particular you might want me to write next, please feel free to leave a prompt either in my ao3 inbox or at my tumblr (thighs-without-mercy.tumblr.com) 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story and please leave me a comment if you did. (Or if you didn't)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story!


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